Cuts to planning services have helped ensure that only 7% of England’s housing stock is even ‘visitable’ by a disabled person
Wed 5 Jun 2019 07.00 BST
Last modified on Wed 5 Jun 2019 09.10 BST
Six years ago a House of Lords inquiry concluded that the UK government and society were “woefully under-prepared” for the needs of the ageing population. It was meant to be a wake-up call, a prompt for action, but new evidence shows that we continue to drift negligently on the crucial issue of housing.
If older people are going to live longer in their own homes, avoiding costly residential care, those homes must be suitable for the limitations of later life or capable of easy adaptation. Yet just 7% of England’s housing stock provides even the most basic features of accessibility, making a property “visitable” by a disabled person in the official jargon.
If it is not easy to retro-fit a Victorian villa or 1930s mansion flat to make them fully accessible, at least we could ensure that new homes are suitable for people who may be unable to manage steps to the front door or stairs to use the bathroom. Indeed, there are clear standards set down in building regulations. But a comprehensive survey published today of English councils by Habinteg housing association, a specialist provider, has found these optional standards are not being widely applied.
Outside London, only 23% of homes due to be built by 2030 are planned to meet basic accessibility criteria – an entrance-level toilet, for instance, or bathroom walls strong enough to bear the fitting of grab rails if required – while just 1% will be wheelchair accessible. The NHS estimates there are 1.2 million wheelchair users in England.
The national picture looks a little better because the Greater London Authority has, since 2004, required all new homes to meet access standards. It expects 90% to meet the basic criteria and the other 10% to meet the standard for wheelchair users. As a result, just under a third (32%) of new homes planned across England as a whole will meet the basic criteria, with another 2.4% suitable for wheelchairs.
Are councils reluctant to insist on these standards lest developers are deterred by the additional cost involved? This seems unlikely, at least for basic accessibility, which has been officially costed at less than an extra £1,400 for a three-bed semi – though provision for wheelchairs comes at a heftier £17,000 for an adaptable property or almost £30,000 for full accessibility, because of the additional space required.
Yet failure to apply the standards looks a false economy. If someone cannot be discharged from hospital because their home does not meet their needs while convalescing, the NHS incurs extra costs of at least £2,000 a week.
A more likely explanation is simply failure – still – to recognise the importance of the issue. Habinteg, which wants the government to make the rest of England follow London’s lead in setting targets, found that many of the 322 “local plans” it analysed for the survey still cite out-of-date standards that should have been replaced in 2015. Across the whole West Midlands region, just 10% of planned new homes were found to be designated accessible, all of them according to the old standards.
This may, of course, have not a little to do with the lamentable state of the austerity-ravaged planning system. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has just reported, there have been real-terms cuts of more than 50% in spending on planning and development by English councils over the past decade, as dwindling funds have been desperately shifted to social care.
Our political leaders would do well to remember that saving money on planning leads not just to fewer pen-pushers, but also to fewer older and disabled people able to live independent lives.
• David Brindle is the Guardian’s public services editor
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/05/new-homes-accessible-older-disabled-people
