Development Management Policies - Direction of ... - Islington Council

5 Housing
iii) Where cycle storage is provided within the home it should be in addition to the minimum
GIA and minimum storage and circulation requirements.
Also refer Policy DM23 (Cycle Parking and end-of-trip facilities) for additional requirements
for the provision of cycle storage.
5.0.19 Policy 12 (Meeting the Housing Challenge) Part A of the Core Strategy states the intention
to set-out new standards for residential space and design, to provide high quality homes
that provide a good quality of life.
5.0.20 New homes in the United Kingdom are some of the smallest in Europe. Many homes do
not provide enough space for storage, for children to play safely or to allow for the range
of activities carried out in the home. This was confirmed in the recent report produced by
CABE entitled "Space in new homes – What residents think" (2009). Constrained capacity
for housing and projected growth in population creates design challenges in terms of
outdoor amenity space, privacy, noise and light, safety and communal space.
5.0.21 Having regard to these challenges, Islington needs to accommodate a range of housing
types across a range of densities, making sure flats work for families as well as individuals.
Providing a mix of dwellings makes communities safer and more secure as there is more
potential for homes to be occupied during the day, providing natural surveillance, community
interaction and environmental control.
5.0.22 Housing must be well-designed, safe, adaptable, sustainable and attractive. It must provide
the accessibility, adaptability and flexibility required for the 21st century living, address
the challenges of climate change and help sustain thriving neighbourhoods. Achieving
design excellence is not simply about applying a set of design standards.
5.0.23 The Mayor has developed a Interim Housing Design Guide for London. The guide brings
together and clarifies the required standards for new housing and sets minimum standards
in a number of key areas in response to the particular challenges of developing high quality
housing to meet the diverse range of needs in London. The proposed housing space
standards generally provide an increase from the Parker Morris space standards.
5.0.24 Islington has chosen to adopt the housing standards set out in this Design Guide for
London across all housing types so all homes will be built to the same standard. The
rationale behind this is housing design should be 'tenure blind', where affordable and
private homes are indistinguishable from one another in terms of design quality, appearance
or location on a site. Also, the need to improve design quality is as pressing in the private
market sector as it is for affordable housing. Having the same space standards across
tenures means that there will be no barriers to "suitability" of the tenure at some point in
the future. This approach is consistent with the recently produced Interim Housing Design
Guide (Aug 2010), published by the Mayor to support Policy 3.5 of the Draft Replacement
London Plan, which applies the new quality and design standards to all new housing.
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Islington Council Development Management Policies - Direction of Travel