No space like home? Small domestic properties, compensatory urbanism and housing futures in English cities

Society

No space like home? Small domestic properties, compensatory urbanism and housing futures in English cities

Introduced in 2015, the Nationally Described Space Standard (NDSS) provides local authorities a clear basis for not permitting housing below a certain minimum size (e.g. self-contained one-bed flats and studios should have a gross internal area higher than 37m²). However, the standards are non-mandatory, and most local authorities have still not adopted them (Hubbard, 2023).

Our preliminary research has found that homes below this minimum increased in England after 2015, constituting at least 5% of new housing produced nationally, and 10% in some notable ‘hotspots’. Yet very little is known about these sub-sized properties: where they are located, why they are being permitted, and whether these properties provide adequate homes for residents. For some, these are a symptom of compensatory urbanism, accommodation mooted as the solution to the housing crisis but actually perpetuating precarity (see Tonkiss, 2013; Harris & Nowicki, 2020).

An urgent question hence remains as to whether these sub-sized properties provide much-needed affordable homes, or whether these are destined to become the ‘slums of the future’.

Aims

This research will focus on the very smallest homes in England (i.e. self-contained dwellings below the 37m² threshold) combining quantitative and qualitative techniques to answer the following:

What form do these sub-sized domestic properties take?
In which neighbourhoods are these properties most numerous?
Does the development of small homes in these neighbourhoods improve housing affordability, or, conversely, increase house prices and rental costs?
Do people living in these properties experience them as adequate and liveable homes?
Why are proportions of sub-sized homes higher in some local authorities than others?

Methods

This research will build on existing work by the research team showing it is possible to combine existing data from EPCs (on home size), Price Paid and Zoopla data (on cost) and planning data using machine learning methods to identify trends in the development of small homes (Reades et al, 2019; Hubbard et al, 2021). It will also develop our socio-legal analyses of the regulation of housing adequacy in England (Carr, 2016; Carr, 2017; Hubbard, 2023). Finally, it will utilise the research team’s skills in relation to the socio-materialities of home (Brickell, 2012; Harris et al, 2020; Wilkinson & Ortega Alcázar, 2019) to discover if small homes are meeting occupants’ needs.

Impact

These findings and their implications will be of particular interest to local authority planners given the project will synthesise best practice in NDSS enforcement, making recommendations to ensure National Development Management Policies promote adequate and affordable housing suited to its local context. National and regional policymakers (and politicians), plus charities and NGOs working on housing issues, will also be key beneficiaries. Developers, landlords and architects are likely to be interested by improving their understanding of the varied ways that small dwellings are occupied, and by whom. The project will also engage occupiers by providing insight into housing affordability and the trade-offs between housing space, price, and location.