Architects said that more than 50 percent of the newly constructed family homes in the UK under private housebuilders are too small for the mimimum standard space requirement set by the government.
The Guardian reported that these houses have the typical three-bedroom with a missing space which is equivalent to a bathroom. These bedroom sizes were said to be too small in accord to the minimum reasonable space standards set by the government in October.
Based from the same report, these newly constructed houses located outside London are currently suffering from "rabbit hutch" types of homes as the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) call it. This term was used to describe the rest of the 100 house developments.
According to the list recorded by RIBA, there are two housebuilders they labelled as the worst and the leading offenders in the house development industry. These are the builders of Barratt homes and Persimmon homes.
"Baratt homes were on average 6.7-square meters smaller than minimum space standards and the latter, the Persimmon homes with an average of 10.8-square meters which is really too small -- equivalent to a size of double bedroom," the article on The Guardian revealed.
Jane Duncan, RIBA president mentioned that these types of houses should be the trend or thing in the past. "Tiny rabbit-hutch new-builds should be a thing of the past. But, sadly, our research shows that, for many people, a new home means living somewhere that's been built well below the minimum space standard needed for a comfortable home."
She added, "The government must take action to ensure a fairer minimum space standard is applied to all new homes across the country."
RIBA also stated that this act of squeezing the space of these homes is also like "depriving thousands of families of the space needed for them to live comfortable and cohesively, to eat and socialize together, to accommodate a growing family or aging relatives, or even to store possessions including everyday necessities such as a vacuum cleaner."
Manchester Evening News reported that Duncan is urging the government to build new homes. "We urgently need new homes, but building small homes or cutting corners when converting office buildings to flats is short-sighted and fails the people these new homes are meant to serve."
Currently, RIBA campaigns for the national minimum space standard to ensure the family's comfort in their new homes.
Steward Basely, the executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation said that if the country keeps on imposing new space standards for the new homes, that will trigger the "acute" housing shortages in the entire UK.
"The industry provides a wide range of house types in sizes and locations that provide choice for people on all income levels," Basely said. He added that buyers will anyway like the way the house looks when they buy it.
