Housing: Gardens
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of policy options to deliver adequately sized, high-quality gardens of 200 square metres as part of the Government's pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by 2030.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
The National Planning Policy Framework emphasises the importance of a network of high quality, open spaces for the health and wellbeing of communities and the environment. This is supported by national design guidance, which explains the contribution of private and communal gardens to well designed places, in the context of health, well-being, privacy and the natural environment. Through draft updates to national design guidance, we will continue to promote the use of design codes by local planning authorities to set minimum requirements on back-to-back distances, overlooking and front garden sizes for new housing.
We do not otherwise have any current plans to mandate minimum garden sizes for new developments.
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