The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee has published the report for its inquiry on disabled people in the housing sector.
The report was agreed by the Committee on Monday 20th May, ahead of the Prime Minister’s announcement on Wednesday of a General Election on 4 July.
The report examined the barriers to accessible housing, increasing the supply of accessible homes, and the support available for adapting homes, including reforms to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).
The report was informed by more than 1,000 people who responded to the Committee’s online survey or provided written evidence, including hundreds of personal accounts from disabled people.
Recommendations included: increasing the supply of accessible homes, making better progress on property implementing the M4(2) accessibility standard in practice and implementing the delayed technical consultation; require local authorities to assess the local need for accessible homes and register their own stock as well as reporting on the supply of new homes; and require landlords to include information about the accessibility of their properties in the private rented sector (PRS).
The report stated: “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 wellbeing 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.
“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.
“In particular, it is deeply concerning that the Government’s new Disability Action Plan fails to directly address housing at all, despite clear evidence of the knock-on effect of housing on all aspects of disabled people’s lives.
“Moreover, the only substantive reassurance that the Minister for Housing and Homelessness was able to provide us with was that she had “heard from lots of people on the ground” in her capacity as the Ministerial Disability Champion.
“We recommend that the Government should take action based on the concerns that the Minister has heard.”
