Lifetime Homes have number required design features that ensure a new house or flat will meet the needs of most households.
This does not mean that every family is surrounded by things that they do not need. The accent is on accessibility and design features that make the home flexible enough to meet whatever comes along in life:
Part M of the building regulations, deals with accessibility requirements, for houses, as well as public buildings.
When designing new homes, it is now therefore often necessary to take account of Part M of the Building Regulations. This has recently been extended to include all new homes.
The summary tables also indicate which of the Housing Corporation Scheme Development Standards will be met when designing Lifetime Homes.
Developers and builders may simply wish to ensure that their plans meet Lifetime Homes standards. If they do, then all of the Part M Building Regulations, and relevant parts of the Housing Corporation Scheme Development Standards will have been met.
But there are other reasons why designing new homes to the Lifetime Homes standards makes sense.
Lifetime Homes include a number of attractive features that will differentiate them from the existing housing stock. These will provide the people who live in them with many advantages, and will give private builders of new homes a marketing edge in relation to the second-hand stock with which they compete.
Because Lifetime Homes will be suitable for older people (whose numbers are increasing rapidly) and for the vast majority of disabled people, as well as the non-disabled person, they will have a wider market of potential buyers and residents. This will probably increase their value and the ease with which they can be re-sold.