{"id":997367,"date":"2026-06-01T01:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/997367\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T01:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:28:15","slug":"green-council-backs-shoebox-flats-in-bristol-housing-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/997367\/","title":{"rendered":"Green council backs shoebox flats in Bristol housing scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tNews<\/a><\/p>\n

Average rents in the city have risen to a staggering \u00a31885 a year. Year on year, rents have risen by up to 8 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Pat Meusel<\/b><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"City<\/p>\n

Bristol City Council has been based here since 1956 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons \/ Neiljforsyth)<\/p>\n

Bristol City Council, led by the Green Party, is set to sign off on new rules that would allow the construction of flats as small as 18 square metres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Socialist Worker spoke to Delane, a young IT worker who has recently moved to Bristol from London.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that\u2019s being built in Bristol seems to be small, \u2018student flats,\u2019 with rents that are ridiculously expensive,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bristol is in the grips of a housing crisis. Average rents in the city have risen to a staggering \u00a31885 a year. Year on year, rents have risen by up to 8 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, Bristol records the highest rates of homelessness<\/a> in the south west. The housing charity Shelter reports that 1 in 113 residents of Bristol experience homelessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the council has increasingly looked to so-called co-living spaces as a solution to the city\u2019s housing crisis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A planning document published by the council reads, \u201cIt is anticipated that this form of development will be a more prominent feature of Bristol\u2019s housing market in the coming years\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of homes on the market are already along the lines of these \u2018built for renters schemes,\u2019 on the model of co-living spaces,\u201d Delane added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a bit bigger than what\u2019s being proposed now. But they\u2019re always advertised as \u2018community oriented developments.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, the council claims that, \u201cBringing together people in a communal environment allows the sharing of costs and resources\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, as Delane points out, these developments offer little in the way of community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re advertised as the sorts of places you can move in to\u2013and out of\u2013quickly. And that\u2019s the point. They offer no sense of long-term stability,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When plans for the even smaller co-living spaces were first published last year, the council\u2019s plans were criticised by the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s response reads that, \u201cCombined with communal space, this size of unit can provide suitable living space for the occupant\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the government\u2019s own Nationally Described Space Standard states that one person must have a floor space of at least 37 square metres\u2013more than double what\u2019s now being proposed in Bristol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Delane pointed out that the plans for even smaller co-living spaces in Bristol was part and parcel with other problems in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of affordable and decent public transport in the city is shocking,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on a wage where I can afford to live in the centre. But some of my co-workers, on decent wages, have to live outside the city, so commuting to the city\u2019s become extortionate,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And for him, it\u2019s no surprise that the Greens have put forward this plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely, building affordable, social housing, along with improving public transport are things a Green council would be in favour of?\u201d he asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bristol shows the limits of the Greens<\/a> \u2014and the need to fight for decent housing for all on the streets, estates and neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Average rents in the city have risen to a staggering \u00a31885 a year. Year on year, rents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":997368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,13593,6333,16,15],"class_list":["post-997367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-bristol","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-greens","tag-housing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116672259816249533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}