Consider adding a number of habitable rooms field to residential units

[colmjude]

GLA has asked whether number of habitable rooms should be included in the residential units part of the national standard.

What GLA is asking for

The ask is to add number of habitable rooms as an additional field within the residential unit model.

At present, the source materials show that GLA captures this, but they do not yet clearly explain the national problem this field would solve.

What we still need from GLA

• what this field is used for in practice
• whether there is a standard definition they apply
• whether the field can be collected consistently across LPAs
• examples showing why bedrooms or unit counts are insufficient for the use case they have in mind

[colmjude]

Current policy position is that this should not be collected nationally in the submission standard at this stage.

The current view is that it is too subjective to apply consistently across authorities, and the evidence provided does not yet show that it is needed to determine the planning permission decision.

Next step

Keep this as a suggestion and ask GLA to provide clearer rationale, definitions, and practical examples if they want the case to be considered further.