Accessible Homes - let's focus on the social case, not just the business case | #ForAccessibleHomes News

Jeremy Porteus (FRSA) is Chief Executive of the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (Housing LIN), and the author of the influential HAPPI (Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation) reports and co-author of RIBA’s book on Age-friendly housing. He served as a member of the Government's independent Older People's Housing Taskforce, and formerly sat on the Government's Homes for 2030 Board and Innovate UK's Healthy Ageing Challenge Advisory Board, as well as being vice-chair of the Housing & Ageing Alliance. In this blog, he makes the case for accessible and adaptable homes as a social imperative as well as a financial one, and explains how Housing LIN's new SHAPE programme aims to put co-production at the heart of delivering such homes.  

Accessible Homes Week highlights some of the issues that matter most to us at the Housing LIN. It’s evident in our long-standing commitment to both the Lifetime Homes principles and the HAPPI Design Principles from the Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation, which have shaped the way we think about designing housing for an ageing population for almost 20 years.

The case for accessible housing

As is made clear by Habinteg's excellent research UK public perceptions of home adaptations 2026, alongside our own Ipsos Mori/Housing LIN report on older peoplea’s housing preferences: there's a chronic shortage of accessible and adaptable homes for older and disabled people across the country. This isn't just about how people live day to day — it affects their ability to sustain social networks, access care and support, and stay in work. Too many people are effectively locked out of suitable housing, both social and mainstream, simply because the stock was never designed to adapt.

There are genuine, welcome signs of progress. The recent National Planning Policy Framework and Homes England's new social and affordable homes prospectus both recognise the case for accessible housing, calling for at least 40% of new homes on funded sites to meet the regulations. But while we're looking forward, we're also taking a step back: setting a 40% threshold means we're capping accessibility. It's progress, but it's not yet the fully inclusive approach our sector wants and people need.

That's why the Housing LIN, together with Habinteg, the Centre for Ageing Better and other partners, co-founded the Housing Made for Everyone Coalition (HoME), campaigning for the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard to become the baseline for every new home in England.

It’s about outcomes

The case for this isn't just about bricks and mortar — it's about outcomes. The Older People's Housing Taskforce identified closer integration of housing, health and social care as essential, calling for stronger strategic alignment between the sectors. Yet accessible housing remains poorly understood in health and care circles — too often treated as a construction topic rather than a constructive topic for health and social care delivery.

While those doing the building may bear the upfront cost of accessible design, it's the NHS and social care system that reaps the greatest benefit, through delayed or avoided hospital admissions and reduced reliance on residential care. The Building Research Establishment has estimated that poor quality housing costs the NHS £1.4 billion a year. The financial case for a fully accessible, adaptable approach is compelling.

Technology plays a crucial role

And it doesn’t stop with physical adaptations. Enabling technology and technology-enabled care is playing an increasingly central role in how people manage health conditions and stay independent at home; and it will only become more important as the January 2027 deadline for the analogue to digital switchover approaches. Accessible and adaptable homes need to be both physically and digitally ready if they're going to genuinely support independence for the long term.

But how do we get there? The foundation has to be in co-production: listening to, and acting on, the lived experience of older and disabled people themselves. This forms one of the core pillars of SHAPE — the Housing LIN and Vivensa Foundation's new five-year UK-wide programme, launching just weeks after Accessible Homes Week.

Backed by a Challenge Fund of at least £3 million, SHAPE will provide an opportunity for local partners in the UK to apply for funding to set out their strategic ambitions, plan for and support delivery of sustainable, scalable, future-proofed accessible housing solutions. It will be built around leadership sets that connect the local stewards of housing, care and support, with the voices and choices of older and disabled people at every level.

If we're serious about accessible homes benefiting everyone, at every stage of life, we need to stop treating this purely as a numbers exercise for house builders and start recognising it as a social one too. The evidence is there. Now it's about building the will — and the housing — to match it.