Fixing adult social care starts with mandating higher national accessibility standards | Latest news

By Martin Warhurst, Chief Executive of Habinteg Housing Association

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to reform adult social care to help fix the current system that’s “bad for everyone”.

His aim to create a “preventative front-end social care service” is most welcome. Simply put, this is about helping us to keep independent, safe, and healthy in our own homes and communities for as long as possible. But to make this happen Mr Burnham needs a clear vision on housing quality and design.

Homes need to be designed in an accessible, inclusive way, so they support everyone to thrive, whatever their age or abilities, particularly for households requiring care at home. We’re optimistic that Mr Burnham could be the leader to finally act on this.

As elected mayor, he oversaw Greater Manchester’s Places for Everyone plan, which requires all new homes to be built to the accessible and adaptable M4(2) standard.As of March 2024, this plan was adopted by nine of the 10 Greater Manchester (GM) authorities. This requirement exceeds the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)’s proposal that every Local Plan should deliver at least 40% of new builds to this standard. (The last Conservative administration had proposed to change Building Regulations to establish M4(2) as the baseline for all new homes).

This 40% threshold reinforces the misunderstanding that M4(2) homes are somehow specialist, rather than being an inclusive universal design standard. Does the government believe it’s fine for 60% of new homes to be built to the less accessible baseline? The GM spatial strategy would suggest that our new PM thinks differently. We’d like to see him act through Building Regulations to uprate the regulatory baseline to M4(2). This would ensure that all new homes can be easily adapted when needed (saving on social care budgets) and can be places that support efficient domiciliary care services whilst minimising unwanted moves to residential settings. Such homes are part of a preventive approach with benefits to both public health and social care provision.

One area the GM plan is silent on is M4(3) wheelchair user homes, leaving it to each member authority to decide on the proportion of these homes it requires.

Brilliant as M4(2) homes are - great to live in at any life stage and easily adapted if occupants’ needs change - we must not imagine that they will meet the long-term needs of wheelchair users. From speaking with Habinteg tenants I’ve heard many times what a difference it makes to people’s well-being and independence to have a home that properly meets their access requirements.

We really need Mr Burnham’s administration to go further to ensure that wheelchair users are not left out of the new homes planning picture. We recommend setting a national minimum percentage for M4(3) homes, or, as a bare minimum, government should require every local plan to state its evidenced policy on M4(3) wheelchair user homes.

Last year our third Forecast for accessible homes , provided a snapshot of the use of M4(2) and M4(3) standards (still optional in Building Regulations) in all English Local Plans.

We found 67% had no set target for M4(3) homes. This patchy commitment has real life consequences for disabled people, leaving far too many making do in homes that are wholly unsuitable and limit their lives every day.

When wheelchair users’ housing needs are not met the consequences can be catastrophic, far reaching and costly to the individual, their family the NHS and social care budgets. The demand is easily evidenced through a conversation with any local authority allocations team. The stats are clear, too: in 2020, English Housing Survey data showed that around 400,000 wheelchair users were living in homes that are neither designed for nor adapted to their needs.

Providing wheelchair accessible homes isn’t a matter of specialist provision, but a mainstream necessity if we are to enable everyone to thrive. Setting a national expectation on planning wheelchair-user housing is critical to reducing the growing deficit.

Accessible homes a fundamental to a caring, healthy, thriving society. They reduce public expenditure on the NHS, social care and welfare benefits, and generate revenue through tax and national insurance when disabled people or their families are able to take up or increase paid work.

They also reduce the need for costly, disruptive home adaptations and keep families together by allowing older and disabled people to remain safely integrated into household life.

As we await the new NPPF and the birth of a National Care Service, we urge Mr Burnham to mandate a 100% M4(2) regulatory baseline and to stipulate that every Local Plan – including those in devolved authorities – must evidence and explain their policy for delivery of wheelchair-user homes.

It would show that the government is finally creating an integrated, strategic approach to housing, health and social care that will benefit the individual, their household, the wider community, and the public purse.

This piece was first published in Inside Housing on 4 August 2026.