Have your say on housing

The Housing Made for Everyone (HoME) coalition is calling for urgent action to tackle the UK’s acute and growing shortage of accessible homes.  

The coalition of charities and housing organisations, including DR UK, is urging the public to back its proposal for better homes. The government is now consulting on its long-awaited proposals to raise standards, so that all new homes are built to better meet the needs of current and future generations of older and disabled people.

Individuals and organisations can have their say by responding to the consultation before the deadline of 1 December. To help people make their voices heard, the coalition has created a simple guide with background information and suggested responses. It is calling specifically for the government to raise building standards to make the ‘accessible and adaptable’ design standard the mandatory baseline for all new homes (set out in Building Regulations M4 Category 2).

The coalition believes that everyone, no matter their disability or age, needs a good home. For most people, that means a home that keeps them safe and healthy and enables them to live the life they want.

However, the UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe. An overwhelming 91% of homes do not provide even the lowest level of accessibility, meaning fewer than one in ten homes are suitable for disabled people to visit, never mind live in.

Building accessible and adaptable homes helps people to increase their independence at home, keep them safer, and delay or avoid unwanted moves to more specialist housing - all of which also create enormous social and public savings benefits. Read more here: https://www.habinteg.org.uk/homecoalition/ and respond to the consultation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/raising-accessibility-standards-for-new-homes