Policy information sourced from The London Plan 2021

D6 Housing Quality and Standards

  1. Housing development should be of high quality design and provide adequately-sized rooms (see Table 3.1) with comfortable and functional layouts which are fit for purpose and meet the needs of Londoners without differentiating between tenures.
  2. Qualitative aspects of a development are key to ensuring successful sustainable housing. Table 3.2 sets out key qualitative aspects which should be addressed in the design of housing developments.
  3. Housing development should maximise the provision of dual aspect dwellings and normally avoid the provision of single aspect dwellings. A single aspect dwelling should only be provided where it is considered a more appropriate design solution to meet the requirements of Part B in Policy D3 Optimising site capacity through the design-led approach than a dual aspect dwelling, and it can be demonstrated that it will have adequate passive ventilation, daylight and privacy, and avoid overheating.
  4. The design of development should provide sufficient daylight and sunlight to new and surrounding housing that is appropriate for its context, whilst avoiding overheating, minimising overshadowing and maximising the usability of outside amenity space.
  5. Housing should be designed with adequate and easily accessible storage space that supports the separate collection of dry recyclables (for at least card, paper, mixed plastics, metals, glass) and food waste as well as residual waste.
  6. Housing developments are required to meet the minimum standards below which apply to all tenures and all residential accommodation that is self-contained.
    • Private internal space
      • Dwellings must provide at least the gross internal floor area and built-in storage area set out in Table 3.1.
      • A dwelling with two or more bedspaces must have at least one double (or twin) bedroom that is at least 2.75m wide. Every other additional double (or twin) bedroom must be at least 2.55m wide.
      • A one bedspace single bedroom must have a floor area of at least 7.5 sq.m. and be at least 2.15m wide.
      • A two bedspace double (or twin) bedroom must have a floor area of at least 11.5 sq.m.
      • 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 1 sq.m. within the Gross Internal Area).
      • Any other area that is used solely for storage and has a headroom of 0.9- 1.5m (such as under eaves) can only be counted up to 50 per cent of its floor area, and any area lower than 0.9m is not counted at all.
      • 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. Any built-in area in excess of 0.72 sq.m. in a double bedroom and 0.36 sq.m. in a single bedroom counts towards the built-in storage requirement.
      • The minimum floor to ceiling height must be 2.5m for at least 75 per cent of the Gross Internal Area of each dwelling.
    • Private outside space
      • Where there are no higher local standards in the borough Development Plan Documents, a minimum of 5 sq.m. of private outdoor space should be provided for 1-2 person dwellings and an extra 1 sq.m. should be provided for each additional occupant, and it must achieve a minimum depth and width of 1.5m. This does not count towards the minimum Gross Internal Area space standards required in Table 3.1
  7. The Mayor will produce guidance on the implementation of this policy for all housing tenures.

For more information please see The London Plan 2021