Shapps to set up local building standards body

Housing minister Grant Shapps has issued draft proposals for a new system of local regulation of house building.

Papers being circulated by communities department officials air proposals to set up a new body to oversee the local construction standards house builders will need to meet in future.

Under the plan, an independent body would develop, own and maintain an approved menu of local standards, which planning authorities and house builders would work to.

The government is looking for housing industry feedback on how an overseeing body might be funded and whether the standards menu would work in practice.

Shapps has already said he plans to drop Homes and Communities Agency proposals for unified standards for publicly-funded homes in favour of a menu of options.

House builders have warned for some time that the ad hoc addition of extra regulations by some local councils is making many schemes unviable.

Some of the most contentious have been conditions to meet the Lifetime Homes standard or build on-site renewable energy plants.