Housing minister announces overhaul and asks builders to suggest other red tape to cut

Housing minister Grant Shapps has scrapped the planned introduction of design standards by the Homes and Communities Agency which would have added £8,000 to the building cost of homes.

Shapps said the proposed regulations, which were to be required on every home which received government funding, were an “unnecessary expense” at a time when the country desperately needed more homes.

The rules, which the HCA consulted on at the end of last year, would have required additional enviromental standards and space standards on all new publicly subsidised homes.

Shapps also said he would sweep away the local “alphabet soup” of local building standards for each individual borough.He said developers should come forward with suggestions for a new system of local development standards.

Shapps said: “Today is the first step of many toward

More soon…

Topics