MPs’ report: introduce minimum accessibility standard for new homes ‘as soon as possible’

The select committee recommended that the Building Safety Regulator should launch the technical consultation on this “immediately with an expedited timeline that is made public”. The report said it was “unclear” why DLUHC did not seek to launch this consultation soon after its announcement of the policy change.

The select committee said: “This amendment to building regulations is an important policy change which will greatly increase the availability of accessible homes for disabled people. However, we are deeply concerned that the department has made little progress towards implementing this policy in practice.”

The LUHC Committee made the recommendation after its research showed that government’s current housing policy fails disabled people “too often”.

The select committee said: “Disabled people are not a homogeneous group with a single set of housing needs. Rather, government policy must seek to address the many barriers which disabled individuals face, which vary widely. Too often too many disabled people are failed by current housing policy.

“We have been particularly pained to hear of the impact on disabled people’s dignity, health and well-being of living in unsuitable accommodation.

“It is intolerable that many disabled people are living in unsuitable accommodation for years without hope. It is essential that the government, local authorities and the housing sector work together to prioritise disability inclusion and address the barriers that disabled people are currently facing.”

The LUHC Committee added: “We have found little evidence that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is fully recognising the housing needs of disabled people, let alone treating disabled people’s needs as a priority in housing policy.”

The Disabled Facilities Grant

The DFG is a grant to fund adaptations to give disabled people better accessibility and freedom of movement into and around their homes. Central government distributes DFG ‘allocations’ to local authorities, which in turn are responsible for processing and delivering grants for their residents.

The DFG is a mandatory grant, meaning local authorities must provide a grant to cover the cost of adaptations to applicants who meet “all the necessary conditions”, subject to a means test and an upper limit of £30,000 in England.

The report said that the government should “immediately review” the £30,000 upper limit on individual DFGs, with consideration for regional variation in construction costs, and set new regional upper limits. Going forward, the new upper limits must also take account of inflation and construction costs, the select committee said.

It said that the government should reform the means test to ensure it does not “disproportionately penalise working disabled people”, by introducing more gradual tapering of personal contributions for disabled people when they move into work. The select committee said that the government must also simplify the means test.

“The £30,000 upper limit on individual DFG applications is sufficient to cover the cost of most DFG applications,” the LUHC Committee said.

“However, the fact that the upper limit has not changed since 2008, despite recent rising construction costs, means the DFG does not meet the needs of some applicants whose adaptations cost more than £30,000. Consequently, a small number of disabled people who require more complex adaptations may struggle to afford to self-fund the home adaptations they need.”

The LUHC Committee welcomed the government’s decision to increase overall DFG funding allocations to local authorities in 2023-24 and 2024-25 but said the current DFG distribution formula is “unfair and does not distribute funds according to local need”.

The select committee said the government must establish a new distribution formula that is “clearly based on local need and therefore fairer”.

The report recommended that the government responds to the external review of the grant, published in 2018. This should set out responses to each of the review’s recommendations and what action has already been taken to address them as well as a timeline for the future implementation of all the reforms, the report said.

Data on the accessibility of new and existing homes

The LUHC Committee said that the government must require all local authorities to keep a register of accessibility of homes in their own housing stock and require local authorities to keep a detailed record of all accessible social housing within their local authority area.

Local authorities should be encouraged to publish this information so that disabled people can access this information in appropriate accessible formats, it said.

“We are concerned that most local authorities do not keep a register of the accessibility of their own housing stock, despite some disabled people living in temporary accommodation for years while waiting for accessible social housing,” the report said.

The select committee said that DLUHC must require local authorities to report on the supply of new homes at M4(2) standard and M4(3) (wheelchair user dwellings) standard specifically in their annual data submission to the department.

“The government should provide funding, in line with the new burdens doctrine, to local authorities to ensure that they can carry out these additional requirements and duties to the best of their ability,” the LUHC Committee said.