Accessibility in place-making: Amendment to 2014 Infrastructure Bill
Habinteg and TCPA briefing on the Infrastructure Bill
Summary
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and Habinteg share a strong commitment to shaping places which meet the needs of all sections of society over their lifetimes. This is not simply a matter of principle in promoting inclusive places, it also increases personal choice and reduces the costs of expensive retrofit measures. Planning plays a key role in shaping decisions for the wider built environment as well as at the building scale.
However, awareness and skills in some planning authorities are relatively low and we share a joint concern that the Government’s reform package has made high quality accessible outcomes harder to achieve. The purpose of New Clause 12 tabled by Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods MP would be to amend the Infrastructure Bill in order to place accessibility at the heart of local plan making process.
The amendment is supported by the following organisations:
- Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)
- Habinteg Housing
- Age UK
- Aspire
- BRE
- CAE
- Care and Repair
- Disability Rights UK
- Golden Lane Housing
- International Longevity Centre
- Leonard Cheshire Disability
- Mencap
- National Housing Federation
- Papworth Trust
The Case for Change
The built environment and housing stock currently fails to meet the needs of very large numbers of people. The realities of an ageing demographic will only increase the need for accessible housing, although the advantages of accessible design go beyond the older age groups. As a result of the current low availability of accessible housing:
- The potential demand for Disabled Facilities Grants, to make adaptations to overcome inaccessible features in existing housing, is ten times higher than current DFG funding;
- Government statistics show that one in five people requiring adaptations to their home believe that their accommodation is not suitable,
- Research by Habinteg, published in 2010, found that 78,300 wheelchair user households in England had unmet housing needs.
Accessible housing and communities support independent living for people of all ages, and this is one of the reasons why Habinteg and the TCPA have come together to promote the case for all new homes and neighbourhoods to be planned to accessible design standards.