Housing standards in the Global North: UK example
The types of housing standards implemented in the cities of the GN could be illustrated with reference to almost any country, from Australia to Austria, Italy to Ireland. Each would include elements of local idiosyncrasies but the key point is that they would demonstrate the complexity and breadth of the regulations found necessary to prevent market forces throwing up housing that is dangerous for its occupants (albeit possibly affordable). The example chosen here is the situation in the UK.
There are two main sets of housing standards regulated in the UK: the types of new houses that can be built and the conditions within housing deemed acceptable for particular types of residents. Familiarity with the very different types of housing typical in low-income settlements in the urban GS and those in the GN suggest at first that a key difference, because it is so visible, is the type of materials used, and that therefore the use of cheap building materials such as soil bricks and corrugated iron is forbidden in the GN. In the UK, this is not necessarily the case; instead, what is required is that all building work should use materials that are ‘adequate and proper’ for the purposes intended and that the work is done in a ‘workmanlike manner’.13 In theory, a soil brick house with a corrugated iron roof of the sort millions of people in African or Asian cities inhabit is possible. You can even build a house largely of straw bales.14 However, there is a host of regulations about what else is required for a house in which people are going to live. These cover structural safety, fire safety, resistance to contaminants and moisture, toxic substances, resistance to sound, ventilation, sanitation, hot water and water efficiency, drainage and waste disposal, heating and appliances, protection from falling, conservation of fuel and power, access to and use of buildings, glazing safety, and electrical safety. Also, most houses in large cities in the GN are more than one storey, even when they are occupied by only a single household, and frequently most residents live in multi-storey apartment blocks. Many building materials (such as unfired or even fired mud bricks) that are widely used in poor settlements in the GS are only adequate for one-storey houses as they cannot hold up a second floor. The load-bearing properties of building materials is thus a crucial issue. Resistance to moisture is another. Again, mud bricks can work if they are carefully plastered and the roof extends well beyond the walls to provide good protection from rain. Indeed, some of the large one-storey houses in the formerly ‘white’ segregated suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, were constructed in this way in the early parts of the twentieth century, even though their current occupants may not know this. So, of course, are many cottages and old rural houses across Europe, even if their thatched roofs have been replaced. However, even the best-built mud-brick house in most low-income settlements in cities of the GS is unlikely to comply with all the other regulations listed above, including having hot water, bathrooms and toilets within the house and safe electricity, and being well insulated against heat and cold. The visible outside of the house, therefore, reveals only the beginning of the impact of housebuilding regulations.
Current housebuilding regulations in the UK, or anywhere in the world, can, of course, affect only new housing stock. This is why in any long-established town across the world there is usually such a mixture of housing, and much privately owned old housing may not comply with regulations that did not exist when it was built. The incentive to maintain and update such housing largely derives from homeowners’ desire to live in reasonable comfort and safety and to maintain the value of their asset, although local authorities can enforce certain repairs if the condition of the house threatens others nearby. When such houses are sold, if the new owners have to borrow from housing finance institutions, the lenders will also insist that the house is (or is made) structurally sound, because they also have a vested interest in its value.
However, standards for what are deemed acceptable living conditions for residents are laid out for existing rental housing in the UK. Tellingly, the relevant guidance is termed ‘A Decent Home’.15 Thus, two key terms that are central to the arguments in this book are up front. ‘Decent’ is explicitly a normative term: there is no possible objective definition and (in a housing context) it implies value judgements that are made about what a society collectively feels is right, what conditions within a house should be for the people living there, and what conditions are unacceptable because they cause too much physical and mental distress. The use of the word ‘decent’ in any legislation is extremely important because it implicitly recognises that ‘indecent’ conditions arise when market forces are unregulated.16 It is significant, for example, that debates about work and incomes across the world, led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), refer to ‘decent’ work or jobs. Again, the normative aspect is explicit: it is about work that is reliably paid, has safe and non-exploitative conditions and includes elements such as pension and health rights. The other word, ‘home’, is of equal significance because it is not the word ‘house’. It immediately signals that the issues are not seen as purely technical and that there is a recognition of the abstract and emotional aspects of dwelling in a specific building, of issues such as privacy, safety and the need for family life. The related UK Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) states that its purpose is to regulate how ‘the dwelling as a whole, and each individual element in the dwelling has an effect’ on the ‘basic physical and mental needs for human life and comfort’.17
The Decent Homes guidance has four main elements. These are that the home must be in a reasonable state of repair: this includes external walls; the roof; windows and doors; chimneys; central-heating boilers; gas fires; storage heaters; plumbing; and electrics. It must also have facilities and services that are ‘reasonably modern’: these include a kitchen with adequate space and layout to contain all the required items (e.g. sink, cupboards, cooker, worktops); a main bathroom and an indoor toilet (with a nearby washbasin) that is not accessed through a bedroom; adequate insulation against external noise, if needed; and, in blocks of flats, adequate size and layout of common areas. Another requirement is for effective insulation and efficient heating so the home is warm enough to be reasonably comfortable. The most complex element of the guidance is that a decent home ‘meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing’. This is measured against 29 criteria in the HHSRS (Table 3.1) with a scoring system depending on the perceived likelihood of the hazard actually causing harm to the people in the home. High scores mean that the hazard must be remedied. The conditions that led to the appallingly high mortality and morbidity rates in urban housing in the GN in the not-so-distant past are all listed in this table. These are 1 and 2 (damp and mould growth, and cold); 11 (crowding and space); and 15, 17 and 18 (domestic hygiene, pests and refuse; personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage; and water supply). It is worth noting that hazard 11, relating to overcrowding, is understood to go beyond tangible physical criteria and includes other crucial aspects of a home (rather than a house), as it also accounts for ‘the psychological needs for both social interaction and privacy’ (emphasis in the original).
Table 3.1 England and Wales 2006 Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS): potential influences on ‘The basic physical and mental needs for human life and comfort’