Guidance on Houses in Multiple Occupation Amenity Standards

These amenity provisions are the recommended minimum requirement for all
Houses in Multiple Occupation, whether the building requires a mandatory
licence or not. The level of amenity provision depends on the number of
occupiers sharing the accommodation and the type of accommodation, for example, shared house or bedsit accommodation. The facilities should be located not more than one floor distant from the people who use them, unless there is a shared or common dining area available and they should be in a convenient position to enable occupiers to use them comfortably.

Kitchen or kitchen diner facilities must be positioned to ensure they can
be safely used. For example the cooker must not be located adjacent to or
behind the kitchen door, the work surface must be not be chipped or pitted and the floor must be laid and maintained to prevent slips, trips and falls.
Guidance for landlords and property related professionals has been published
and is available via the web link on the Housing Health & Safety Rating System page on the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health website.

Cooking Facilities 

The level of cooking facility largely depends on whether the occupiers have
exclusive or shared use of facilities. No shared kitchen may have any more
than 2 sets of facilities to be shared by a maximum of 10 sharers.

Shared Cooking Facilities

• A four ring gas or electric hob plus oven and grill and positioned so that the hobs are at worktop level.
• A sink and integrated drainer with a tiled splash back and a constant
  supply of hot and cold running water for food preparation.
• Adequate worktop with a minimum of 2000mm of linear usable
  worktop and the standard depth of generally 600mm. Please
  ignore 300mm on each side of the cooker and any inaccessible
  corners as useable food preparation space.
• Food storage unit of standard depth 300mm and height 720mm by
  400mm width, or base unit (not a sink unit) of equivalent volume
  (0.08m3) for each person.