News from UKRI-funded project "No space like home?"

Houses without lounges are a reality for renters Nearly a third of homes advertised on a property sharing website had no living room.

HMO sector, increasing number of flatshares where there is no lounge, just shared kitchen and bathrooms. Another symptom of shrinking Britain? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Flats approved for empty Wisbech hotel building despite concerns Councillors approved the plans for the former hotel, wishing the developers

A local authority has approved 1 bed flats for 2 people that are 16m2 under the Nationally Described Space Standard, noting that these could be detrimental to the living conditions of future occupants! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Riba Stirling Prize 2025: Appleby Blue Almshouse named Britain's best new building Appleby Blue Almshouse in London wins the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize.

Too many homes for elderly = small rooms, institutional, lack of familiar strangers, too much seclusion. Privacy valued, important for dignity, but risks of loneliness - is this the answer? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Implementing the nationally described space standard: regulating housing in a devolved planning system The English housing crisis of the twenty-first century is creating intense demand for new housing, especially in London and the core cities. This is manifest in densification, verticalisation, and ...

A new paper in SI about urban densification and liveability about the regulation of housing space standards in England www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @kbrickell.bsky.social @gypjh2000.bsky.social

@gypjh2000.bsky.social speaking about our small homes research in an UGRG @rgsibg.bsky.social webinar about housing, gentrification and financialisation of property 31 October 1300-1400. cuhk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #Housing #Inequality #Gentrification #planning

Concerns over tiny co-living flats could see new rules introduced Each studio flat would be smaller than two car parking spaces

Will Bristol follow London in bringing recommended space standards for co-living developments? www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...

Wandsworth’s shameful Alton plan: Living rooms as bedrooms in brand new builds - Putney.news Wandsworth expects families to use living rooms as bedrooms in new Alton Estate homes. "Absolutely ridiculous" says resident. Vote ends 16 Oct.

Room to live? not when a living room has to double as a bedroom putney.news/2025/10/10/w...

Liverpool City Council plans crackdown on 'HMO sandwiches' City leaders in Liverpool want to stop residential homes finding themselves sandwiched between HMOs.

Can microapartments be the answer to HMOs proliferating in areas of 'family' housing? Or does preventing the development of smaller homes push residents into HMO sector? Whatever, HMO in the news again, this time in Liverpool:
#microapartment #floorplan #HMO #planning www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Stoke-on-Trent councillors back calls for larger homes Stoke-on-Trent city councillors call on the authority to adopt government house sizing guidelines.

Another local authority has decided to adopt space standards: "even one square metre could make a difference to young parents with a pram." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Co-location set to deliver 31,000 new London homes, Turley finds - Show House New research by independent advisory firm, Turley, has found that co-location developments could deliver 31,000 new homes across London.

"In just two years, the proportion of co-location applications [that include industrial use] alongside purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and co-living formats has jumped from near-zero to one in every two applications submitted" in Ldn www.showhouse.co.uk/co-location-...

Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It's a political timebomb | Tim White We’ve been living in a great experiment: can finance provide basic human rights such as housing? The answer is increasingly no, says researcher and writer Tim White

Tim White on the European housing crisis: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

apartment plan for 1 bedroom apartment showing living room (dual aspect, windows on 2 sides) small bedroom, separate wc, bathroom & kitchen (with window), small entrance hall, stairs (no lift)

Soviet Union post-war housing

above: 1 room (with seperate kitchen) ≈32 m2
below: 2 rooms (with separate kitchen) ≈ 40m2

both dual aspect for daylight & ventilation, & having separate kitchens with windows

This is *better* standard than what’s planned for Ireland in 2025 #housing

Housing Minister looks to reduce minimum apartment size to cut cost of construction Apartment sizes, communal spaces and other areas are part of the raft of measures.

Opposition parties have rounded on plans by Housing Minister James Browne to reduce apartment sizes and community spaces as a way of cutting the cost of construction, saying that the plan has been tried before and failed.

Our first project bulletin can be downloaded here: static1.squarespace.com/static/6762d...

Student accommodation provider reports slowdown in reservations Student accommodation provider Empiric Student Property has reported a slowdown in reservations for the forthcoming academic year.

Student housing markets looking less stable than in recent past. Post-2030, will much of the student accommodation convert to non-student occupation? And what will that mean for liveability - this accommodation was only designed for term-time occupancy. www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/student...

Welcoming @iliana.ortega.alcazar to the ESRC small homes project, on a hot day in Ldn. #smallhouseliving #smallhousung #urbangeography #sheffieldgeography #kingscollegelondon

Team members meeting at KCL, April 2025

Brilliant to come together as a team on Friday, led by @gypjh2000.bsky.social

Our study on small homes in England and Wales runs until May 2027

We have a brand new website www.nospacelikehome.study

And a LinkedIN page www.linkedin.com/company/1065...

Follow us for more information & updates ℹ️

@gypjh2000.bsky.social speaking about housing for students and space standards in HMOs next week in RSA webinar on legal geography lounge.regionalstudies.org/Meetings/Mee...

i've written on Brexit and identity, and food / class relations so i was genuinely interested to read this. But as a journal editor myself, and 100+ papers into my career, I've edited, and possibly written, more bad papers than you've had chip takeaways. But this paper is both bad and offensive!

Our project on small homes in England and Wales will run Dec 2024 - May 2027. Follow us here for news and updates about the work. Not sure what the debates are? Read this: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....