The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
‘A building burns on the inside first’: interior designers call for more regulation The only place where house prices will rise? Northern Ireland
Experts warn the Government hasn’t done enough, writes Melissa Lawford
The 2017 Grenfell disaster lifted the lid on decades-long hidden problems of fire safety in housebuilding. But in the wake of the scandal, interior designers argue that their sector has so far been largely overlooked.
Vanessa Brady, the head of the Society of British and International Design, a professional body, said: “Before a building burns on the outside, it burns on the inside. [ The Government] hasn’t gone far enough to regulate interior design.”
Ministers set up a new building safety regulator to oversee planning and construction. Now, the interior design sector has called on the Government to set up a similar body for the insides of homes.
“We shouldn’t wait for the next accident to happen,” said Ms Brady. “We haven’t got the right overarching rules for interior design.”
While there are many regulations in place for products, such as non-slip ratings for floor surfaces and fire tests for foam in furniture, there is no body that oversees how the individual parts come together to make up a home.
Fires almost always start inside properties, and so interiors are the first line of defence. According to the Home Office, misuse of appliances is the biggest cause of accidental fires in homes, followed by faulty appliances and leads. Together, the two accounted for half of all accidental domestic fires.
A Government spokesman said: “While furnishings are already regulated as products, building work that impacts interior safety will be within the remit of the new Building Safety Regulator set up by our draft Building Safety Bill.”
It is not compulsory for interior designers to obtain consent when making home alterations unless they are reconfiguring supporting walls or affecting heat loss. Replacing a kitchen, for example, does not require consent overall, though the plumbing, electrical, heating and waste extraction systems each have their own separate regulations.
Each aspect can therefore be installed accurately and in accordance with their own specific regulations, but collectively be in breach of fire safety guidance. Tradespeople can be unaware of each other when scheduling their works.
Common problems include electric sockets and taps that are too close together, while fire-safe furniture may be blocking fire exits. “There’s nobody measuring safety for people in the home, only the safety of the products,” said Ms Brady. There is also scope for abuse within the system as the trade body cannot lay down rules for how interior designers charge fees.
Some designers are therefore able to offer to charge no fee, and make their money via discounts they can get on products they purchase from suppliers. There are worries that the products that are then used in homes may not be fire-safe.
“It’s unethical practice,” added Ms Brady. “A designer might recommend a tile that they can get a bigger discount on. They get wooed by manufacturers and taken for champagne dinners.”
But many designers also champion fire safety – and are responding fast to the new challenges of shifting design trends in high-end homes.
Alan Crawford, of the Crawford Partnership, an architecture and interior design practice, said: “There’s been a drive over the past few years for clients demanding open-plan homes.
“That changes things like staircase design – previously staircases were enclosed, now they have become almost a piece of sculpture. It is then difficult to position a staircase as a possible route of escape.”
Sprinkler systems can address this problem, but they are pricey. Mist systems are “the Rolls-Royce”, but cost around £3,500 per tap, said Mr Crawford. Sprinklers are less sophisticated and require more pipe work, but are cheaper.
Interior designers sometimes have to get creative to ensure fire safety. To make an open-plan house in Belgravia
While there are many rules for products, there is no body that oversees how they come together
fire-safe, interior design practice 1.61 London, run by brothers Michael and Alexander Christou, installed fire curtains. These look like rolling blinds and descend automatically to form a walllike partition if there is a fire. In a Park Lane project, the firm worked using fire-rated glass partitions.
Listed buildings can also present problems. Michael Christou said: “19th- century listed buildings don’t necessarily conform to current fire safety standards.
“There’s a conflict between planning and safety requirements – for example, needing to retain the existing listed doors, and fire safety guidance that requires fire-safe doors.” One solution is painting the old doors with two coats of thermo-guard paint.
‘Returning workers get four times the house and keep their London salaries’
It is at the centre of the Brexit quagmire and the average home costs 36pc less than it did before the financial crisis.
But experts have forecast that Northern Ireland’s property market will massively outperform every other UK region in the next three months.
The shift to working from home means the share of buyers returning to purchase family homes in Northern Ireland has doubled, estate agents report, bolstering the market ahead of the stamp duty cliff edge.
Respondents to the latest survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a trade body, predicted shortterm falls in prices and transactions in almost every UK region. In Northern Ireland, the forecasts were the opposite.
As in England, Northern Ireland’s property market surged after the shutdown. Samuel Dickey, of Simon Brien estate agents, said: “We were getting 50, 60, 70 viewers for one property.” Prices in Belfast have jumped 10pc since the market reopened in June, he said.
Buyers want gardens, room for home offices and value for money. According to Ulster University, the average house price in Belfast is £160,000. In London, the average recently hit £500,000.
John Minnis, who runs an estate agency of the same name, said: “The pandemic has massively opened up a flow of buyers coming back to Northern Ireland, generally from England.”
He added: “For London workers, it is win-win. They can get four times the house, and keep their London salary.”
The Northern Irish education system is also a major draw. Northern Ireland did not scrap the grammar school system, which makes up a third of the country’s secondary schools. “Every family house I put on the market will have interest from outside of Northern Ireland,” said Mr Minnis.
Beth Robinson, of Templeton Robinson estate agents, said returnees account for 10pc of family home sales in Belfast, double the pre-pandemic share.
On Brexit, agents are sanguine. “Honestly, it was the lack of decision that was the problem,” said Ms Robinson.
Low house prices also mean Northern Ireland is insulated against the cliff edge coming at the end of the stamp duty break in most of the UK.
Prices fell steeply in Northern Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis. After an initial 30pc crash, values kept declining until the end of 2013. The average home still costs a third less than in 2007, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Many owners are still in negative equity.
Lower prices mean the stamp duty savings are minimal. The average Belfast buyer will pay £700 more if they cannot complete by the March 31 deadline. In London, the extra bill will be £15,000.
Buyers are also less likely to miss out. The time taken to complete has jumped from eight weeks to 12, said Mr Dickey. In England, data company TwentyCi puts the wait at 22 weeks.
The market uptick has encouraged buy-to-let investors, whose numbers are up 15pc year- on-year, said Mr Minnis. But they are entirely local. “Nobody is investing from England. They don’t know Northern Ireland and there is a fear factor, the legacy of the Troubles,” said Mr Dickey.