Research reveals only 25 percent of homes to be built in England specify to Optional Access standards

Habinteg’s Forecast for Accessible Homes 2020 research revealed that more than half of all local plans still make no requirements for any accessible housing standard and only 25 percent of the homes due to be built in England were specified to the Optional Access standards.

Following the research by Habinteg, it was recently uncovered through BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to hundreds of local councils across the country that some of England’s major cities still have no plans for providing wheelchair-accessible homes.

The requests revealed three of the 10 largest cities have no requirements beyond the national guidelines, that only say homes should allow wheelchair users through doors and hallways on the entrance level.

The BBC stated that the FOI responses revealed cities such as Sheffield, Coventry and Bradford currently have no quotas.

A public consultation entitled Raising accessibility standards of new homes ran from 8 September to 1 December 2020. Three of the options set out would establish the accessible and adaptable standard as the new regulatory baseline, and one option includes setting a national minimum requirement for new wheelchair accessible homes.

The Government more recently worked on a disability strategy, launched in 2021, which includes plans on how to improve housing options for disabled people.

Under the government’s Raising accessibility standards for new homes plan, announced in July 2022, all future new build homes would be required to meet the adaptable homes standard, meaning they are step-free, more spacious and offer wheelchair access into all the rooms.

The homes still require adaptations for wheelchair users, such as access-level showers and stairlifts. Funding is available through the UK Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which was increased to around £500m a year over the last five years to boost the number of adaptations in homes.

Assisted bathing specialist Closomat is concluding its 2022 clinical webinar series with a reflection on Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) waiting times and the subsequent impact they have on occupational practice.

According to the research, before 2015 there was no singular wheelchair housing design standard.

Over 400,000 wheelchair users are living in homes which are neither adapted nor accessible, meaning that over half of wheelchair users in England are living in adapted homes according to Habinteg’s estimate from government data.

Recently, the Centre for Ageing Better called on the UK Government to implement the eagerly-awaited improvements to building regulations as soon as practicable, as it stated that the financial and societal benefits of raising the accessibility standards of new homes outweigh the costs of implementing them.

Scotland plans to introduce targets for wheelchair-accessible homes from 2025, however, Wales and Northern Ireland follow their own accessibility regulations, which like England, many cases these are optional or not applicable to all housing stock.

The UK Government published a statement by Kerry Thompson, disability blogger/influencer, who said: “An accessible home can enable greater independence. The accessible adaptable standard will make adaptations more achievable and economically beneficial and in the long term will alleviate pressures on health and social care services and budgets.”