Accessible Housing Day of Action!

Disability Rights UK, alongside many other Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs), have joined Inclusion London's call for an Accessible Housing Day of Action on July 29th, 2024. The day will mark 2 years since the Government committed to raise standards, but the promised changes still haven’t happened yet. We are demanding the new Government raise the minimum accessibility standards for new build homes across the UK.

Inclusion London's campaign calls on the new Government to:

  • Make the M4(2) ‘accessible and adaptable’ standard the minimum requirement for all new build homes, as the previous Government committed to on 29th July 2022
  • Set a minimum target of 10% of new build homes to meet the M4(3) wheelchair user standard
  • Ensure that the majority of accessible homes are built in the social rented sector

In the joint letter DR UK signed alongside other DPOs, we "urge the Government to take immediate and decisive action to address the chronic shortage of accessible and affordable homes in our country."

"At the moment 1 in 5 Disabled people in social housing and 1 in 3 Disabled private renters live in inaccessible homes. The previous Government’s inaction coupled with decades of underinvestment in social housing has meant that an average wheelchair user in England now joining the social housing waiting list can expect to wait up to 47 years for a council home that meets their needs. 

It’s not just wheelchair accessible homes we need though, accessible housing takes many forms. The homes that are currently being built do not allow people to eventually adapt their homes to suit their needs over the course of their lifetime. Raising the accessibility standards would change this. 

Inaccessible homes are homes that are not built to enable people with varied needs to use all facilities or access all rooms. Too many of us cannot wash, cook or sometimes even get in and out of our home independently.This not only drastically impacts our physical and mental health, but also limits our ability to work, study, connect with others and live a full life.  

Accessible homes instead save money and lives."

On Monday July 29th, Inclusion London will be holding an action to demand more accessible housing. Come along! It will be at 12pm, in Westminster. BSL interpretors will be present. Exact location details will be updated on their website.

To support the action, you can also write to your MP using this template, and invite them to come along to the action. You can also share Inclusion London's graphics on social media, to raise awareness. If you are an organisation, you can sign the joint letter to the new Government (with BSL and Easy Read) from Disabled-led organisations and housing organisations, who support the call for higher accessibility standards. Sign it by filling in this form.

Disability Rights UK's CEO, Kamran Mallick, has also written to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner to call for new builds to be made accessible. In the letter, we stated "91% of homes in England do not provide even the most basic accessibility features, and many Disabled people face decade-long waits for accessible homes. We would urge you to take this opportunity to ensure that all new homes are built to high accessibility requirements, creating safe housing for older and Disabled people and setting a level playing field for developers."

You can read the full letter attached down below. 

DR UK Letter to Secretaries of State - Accessible New Builds

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