Bleak forecast for accessible homes
Dr Ola Abu Alghaib, Director of Global Influencing and Research
If you are a wheelchair user wanting to find an accessible property in England, a report published today shows you may still be waiting a long time for a home.
It is imperative the government acts now to end the housing crisis for disabled people.
More accessible homes are required if the UK government is to comply with its international obligations.
The new report, from housing association Habinteg, is A Forecast for Accessible Homes. The research uncovers how many houses built by 2030 will be accessible, after looking at all 322 local plans in England.
The damning report found that accessible homes will still be few and far between by 2030. Outside of London, the forecast is particularly bleak:
- Just 1% of homes outside London will be fully wheelchair accessible (now known as ‘category 3’ homes).
- Less than a quarter of all homes outside London will be ‘accessible and adaptable’ for disabled and older people (now known as ‘category 2’ homes).
A category 3 home makes reasonable provisions for a wheelchair user to live in the home.
A category 2 home is a home that is easier to move around in than older homes; it is not always fully accessible but is adaptable for the future.
Longstanding targets
Leonard Cheshire, Habinteg and the Equality Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have all called for the same, clear targets on accessible homes – targets to match those set in London for all houses built after 2004.
In Leonard Cheshire’s Home Truths reports (2014-15), we called for 10% of homes to be built to fully wheelchair accessible (category 3) standards.
We also called for all other new homes to be built to ‘accessible and adaptable’ (category 2) standards.
In the rest of England, building accessible homes has been an ‘optional’ part of the Building Regulations since 2015. Habinteg says less than a third of all local plans in England set targets for accessible housing built to these standards.
Leonard Cheshire and Habinteg’s targets need to be mandatory requirements for all new-build houses throughout the UK. The current ‘optional’ system in England is clearly not fit for purpose If we are on track for a shocking 1% of new houses to be fully wheelchair accessible.
Failing to meet UN Convention
The UK is signed up to UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Article 19 contains the right for disabled people to ‘choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others’.
There are a tiny number of accessible homes available and an appallingly low number scheduled. Many disabled people cannot and will not be able to choose their place of residence. There is a wholly unacceptable postcode lottery for accessible homes.
Time to act now
As we showed in our Home Truths campaign, building more accessible homes will not only ensure disabled people’s rights are upheld, it will save the government money in the long-run.
The EHRC’s 2018 report Housing and Disabled People: Britain’s Hidden Housing Crisis echoes these findings.
It states:
‘Greater supply will ensure that disabled people are able to claim their right to independent living and will reduce social care costs for local authorities and health costs for the NHS.’
In a country with 13.9 million disabled people and a rapidly ageing population, it is imperative the government acts now to end the housing crisis for disabled people.
