A council has gone against its own rules to allow a tiny one-bed houses to be built to help alleviate its housing shortage. Bristol's own planning policy says new single-occupier dwellings should not be built even if they meet national housing standards. But a planning committee ignored the policy to approve plans for the tiny home to be built in the garden of a traditional terraced property in the city's Hillfields area. The main building itself will be split into two one-bed flats and each of the three homes giving a small slice of the remaining garden. The plans were put forward by developer Ecomotive, which had urged the council to “stand up and make new precedents” to help solve Bristol’s housing crisis. The developer says their Snug housing designs create "affordable housing, small footprints, enough space for people to live comfortably and with dignity". It says that people should be able to choose the type of house they live in away from "bureaucratic regulations" and they see no reason why the scheme couldn't also work in Wales. But council officers in Bristol told councillors they should reject their plans as one-person homes do not provide enough room for everyday activities. At 37sqm to 44sqm, the ground-floor flat, first-floor flat and prefabricated “Snug” home all meet or exceed minimum internal floor space requirements under UK housing standards. But an officer explained that “Bristol does not accept one-bed spaces” because they cannot accommodate extra residents should the need arise. This developer doesn't just want to see smaller houses, but a new way of building them. Their idea is to make homes in a modular way where a core structure would be made in a factory by skilled craftspeople and then it would be up to the customer to choose a custom-build or self-finish. The custom-build would mean a person chose their own internal and external finishing options, and when the modules are taken to the site a specialist team constructs them. Or, self-finish where the modules are delivered but the customer finishes them off. The idea of more smaller house builders isn't just happening in England. The Welsh Government released new planning policy in December which said that authorities had to ensure that the housing coming to the market met the "level of market and affordable housing demand and need in their communities". One of the key ideas of the policy is to ensure that house building isn't just taking place by large companies, but that individuals, or smaller companies are building housing. A register will be created of smaller pieces of land where homes could be built and when it comes to self-build and custom build development the process has to be made more simple to "enable housing development to be brought forward more quickly". “Bristol City Council expects that all new dwellings provide at least two bed spaces,” she told the committee on December 19. “It is considered that this is the smallest unit size that can meet the flexibility and adaptability of the policies outlined, ie, accommodate sufficient space for a partner, a child, temporary carer or visiting friends or relatives.” The three homes will be created by converting the existing two-storey Victorian house into two flats and putting a prefabricated “box” home in the rear garden, the Bristol Post reported. Each home will have its own little grassy space, and two of them will have a small patio as well. During the meeting Labour councillor for Lawrence Hill Margaret Hickman said: “The world is moving to many more units that actually only one person is going to be living in it.” “There’s such a crisis that we’re going to have to shrink probably our expectations to actually be able to house people in the ways that they want to be housed,” she added. But Labour councillor for Horfield Olly Mead cautioned against setting a worrying precedent for “smaller and smaller and smaller properties”. The council’s development manager, Gary Collins, advised councillors to change local planning policy if necessary rather than make a habit of overruling it. Councillors backed the house conversion by nine votes to two before unanimously approving the “Snug” prefab home in the rear garden. Ecomotive said in a subsequent statement: “We are truly grateful to the openness and level-headed thinking of councillors on the committee to not be driven by bureaucratic outdated planning policy, and to overturn the recommendation for refusal of the planning officer.” Cardiff council, which has , does not have a policy against allowing homes of a certain size or occupancy but it has recently consulted on planning guidance about flats and smaller properties in relation to buildings being converted into flats not new-build flats.
Bristol City Council City Council has approved plans for single-occupancy modular homes in a bid to tackle its housing crisis. The UK city's planning committee has given the go-ahead for developer Ecomotive to create two 37-44 sq m one-bed homes in the garden of a two-flat split terraced property. While the miniature homes meet the minimum internal floor space requirements under UK law, the local council's own regulations state one-bed dwellings should not be built as they cannot accommodate extra residents. Meanwhile, the developer believes Bristol City Council should set new precedents and allow its Snug housing design, and break from "bureaucratic regulations".