Residential Basement Development London | It’s DOWN DOWN DOWN all the way!

Over the last seven years we have seen a substantial rise in the scale & quantity of UK residential basement developments. This article discusses the implications of residential basement development and provides valuable information for those looking to embark on a project of this nature.

These developments, to a greater or lesser degree, currently have very limited regulation other than Building regulations 2010 & Construction Design & Management regulations 2007.

The current approval process for residential basement development lacks clarity for the residents, who have to put up with the disruption of this type of building process, and also the local Amenity planning sub committees who have no planning guidance on what’s acceptable and what’s not. We are in a situation where this type of construction is taking place without up to date regulation.

We need residential basement development but we need better and tighter regulation of there size, shape and impact on the surrounding houses and streets.

Residential basement developments are not going to stop and of note, I am very much in favour of them! There is a recognised need for more space within existing houses within London and where possible going down is more favourable to going up.

The availability of land and its quality is declining, and environmental issues need to be tackled. There is also a requirement for greater adaptability in housing to cater for the changes in lifestyle. It is clearly in London’s interest that these challenges are addressed and where possible solved by the application of cost-effective basement and subterranean development works.

The provision of residential basements to the current housing stock in London has and will dramatically improve energy consumption and could provide homes capable of coping with changes in lifestyle and living.

In my view we need to amend the existing residential planning & construction regulation and approval process.

Currently the residential planning permission system is designed to consider the visual impact of a development once complete and in the case of basement developments once complete they have very little or no visual impact to the surrounding area.

In most residential basement developments it’s not the finished element that’s the problem its the impact of the works on the surrounding houses and streets that causes so much objection to this type of development.

Currently Regulation 31 of the 2007 Construction Design & Management regulations requires steps to be taken to ensure that an excavation is safe for those within the building and for neighbours and that’s it.

What can we do to improve the regulation as this type of development is not going to go away?

Basement blogger John