Insight report: A forecast for accessible homes

October 2025 marks 10 years since the introduction of two optional accessible housing design standards to Part M of English Building Regulations.

These standards, M4(2), accessible and adaptable homes and M4(3), wheelchair user dwellings, (see p5), will influence the accessibility of new housing only if they are explicitly referenced in housing policies set out in local plans.

Habinteg has set out to track the use of these optional standards in English local plans, having formally published previous forecasts in 2019 and 2020. The 2025 insight report -  A forecast for accessible homes 2025: one decade on, milestone or millstone? - is a new snapshot of the use of the optional standards in 311 plans and an estimate of the maximum possible impact on future delivery of new accessible homes over the coming 10 years.

The findings reveal stark regional disparities in planning for new wheelchair accessible homes which will put wheelchair user home-seekers at the mercy of a severe postcode lottery.

The report also shares lived experience stories showing how the availability of the right type of accessible housing, in the right places, affects the day to day lives and wellbeing of disabled people up and down the country.

Finding a place to live that offers the accessibility, safety and independence that disabled people need can be an impossible task. Accessible housing choices are far fewer than inaccessible options available to non-disabled people

As a leading champion of accessible homes and neighbourhoods for over 50 years, Habinteg is pressing the government to fix the accessible and adaptable standard as the new national regulatory baseline, and to set strict requirements for planners to allocate a proportion of all new homes to meet the wheelchair user dwelling standard.

Read the report now

Forecast for accessible homes 2025 key findings

• Wheelchair users in England still fare worst in the search for a home with one new wheelchair user home being planned for every 2,006 people in the North West in the next decade compared with one for every 210 Londoners, new research reveals.
  
  
• The ambition for delivery of M4(2) accessible and adaptable homes in London is around 7.6 times higher than the region with the lowest ambition - the North East - with one home planned per 24 people in London and just one per 184 people in the North East.
  
  
• The percentage of all affordable homes due to be M4(3) wheelchair user standard is 8.9%, but the percentage in the open market is less than half that at just 3.3%. Moreover, some local authorities aren’t planning to build wheelchair user homes in the open market at all.
  
  
• Four in 10 (41%) of all new homes being planned over the next 10 years will not be built to the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard or the M4(3) wheelchair user standard.
  
  
• Of all regions, the North East currently makes the least provision of homes for its disabled population with just one new accessible home of any kind proposed per 156 residents over the next decade.

Recommendations

Habinteg is calling on National Government to:

• mandate the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard as the national baseline standard for all new residential development across all types and tenures.
  
• require that a minimum requirement for new homes to meet M4(3) wheelchair user standards is included in every local plan, setting 10% as the starting point where plans fail to do so, whilst allowing flexibility to set higher targets based on local need.

We are calling on Local Authorities to:

• ensure local plans include specific targets and policies for M4(3) homes. A proactive approach to inclusive housing should be embedded in local strategic planning.
  
• implement mandatory, ongoing training for Planning teams and Building Control officers on the technical requirements and policy framework for M4(2) and M4(3) homes.

We are urging developers and housebuilders to:

• Commit to delivering M4(2) as the standard design for all new housing, including market-sale, affordable, and build to rent schemes. 
• Incorporate a proportion of M4(3) homes across all developments - not just specialist housing schemes - based on local authority policy or demonstrated local need.

Find out more

1. Read our news story
2. See our tenant case studies
3. Read the briefing: Forecast for Accessible Homes 2020
4. Read the 2019 Insight report: Forecast for Accessible Homes