The housing minister says the government is providing new guidance on build-to-rent “addressing the concept of shared accommodation and co-living”

Developers have been given the green light to build “future slums” that are made up of towers full of studio apartments under new planning guidelines, a councillor has claimed.

The Department of Housing issued new protocols to county councils and planning authorities this week that outline the details of a legal “build-to-rent” development for the first time. The larger-scale apartment blocks usually consist of hundreds of units and have been designed for rental purposes.

Under the new rules, there will be no restrictions on the dwelling mix in these developments, meaning they can be entirely one-beds. The guidelines also remove the requirement that the majority of apartments in a scheme exceed the minimum floor area standards by at least 10 per cent. A studio apartment