Proposed Amendment to the Residential Design Guide - Internal Space Standards

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Associated Documents

• Technical housing standards – nationally described space standard
• Planning update March 2015

Existing Wording

Internal Space Standards

7.3.5 All residential properties need to provide enough internal space to allow varied domestic activities to take place comfortably. By defining overall space standards for a range of occupancy levels and breaking these down into suggested standards for individual rooms, the following guidance aims to ensure that new homes will meet the needs of occupiers in the long term.

7.3.6 New residential units must be built to the following minimum gross internal areas (GIAs)*:

7.3.7 The minimum width and length of double and twin bedroom should be 2.75m (in most of the length of the room.) The following minimum floor areas for bedrooms should also be met*:

7.3.8 The following combined floor areas for living, kitchen and dining space should also be met*:

7.3.9 Built-in general internal storage space, which is free of hot water cylinders and other obstructions, should have a minimum internal height of 2m. A minimum area of 1.5 sq m should be provided for 2 person dwellings, in addition to storage provided by furniture in habitable rooms. For each additional occupant an additional 0.5 sq m of storage space is required.*

*All standards based on the London Housing Design Guide (2010)

Proposed Wording

Internal Space Standards

(1) 7.3.5 All residential properties need to provide enough internal space to allow varied domestic activities to take place comfortably. By defining overall space standards for a range of occupancy levels based on bed spaces per unit, providing minimum standards for bed room sizes and storage areas the following guidance aims to ensure that new homes will meet the needs of occupiers in the long term.

7.3.6 In accordance with Government policy all new residential units should accord with the Technical housing standards – nationally described space standard. The current standards were issued in March 2015 and are set out in the table below.

Minimum gross internal floor areas and storage (m²)

7.3.7 A dwelling with two or more bedspaces should have at least one double (or twin) bedroom. The minimum width of a room providing a single bed space should be 2.15m and that of a double or twin bedroom should be 2.75m for the first room and 2.55m wide in every other double or twin bed room. The following minimum floor areas for bedrooms should also be met:

7.3.8 The built in storage space required by the standards is set out in the table at 7.3.6. The following constraints apply when considering which elements of built-in storage can be included in the GIA figure for a particular dwelling.

1. any area with a headroom of less than 1.5m is not counted within the Gross Internal Area unless used solely for storage (if the area under the stairs is to be used for storage, assume a general floor area of 1m2 within the Gross Internal Area)
2. any other area that is used solely for storage and has a headroom of 900-1500mm (such as under eaves) is counted at 50% of its floor area, and any area lower than 900mm is not counted at all
3. a built-in wardrobe counts towards the Gross Internal Area and bedroom floor area requirements, but should not reduce the effective width of the room below the minimum widths set out above. The built-in area in excess of 0.72m2 in a double bedroom and 0.36m2 in a single bedroom counts towards the built-in storage requirement
4. the minimum floor to ceiling height is 2.3m for at least 75% of the Gross Internal Area