Martin Warhurst: Accessible homes mean quality of life & independence - they shouldn’t be a pipe dream | Policy blog

Why should accessibility and the fight for more accessible homes concern us all? Our Interim Chief Executive Officer Martin Warhurst shares his experience below for Accessible Homes Week.

Having previously worked for a charity where the beneficiaries were often wheelchair users, and now working at Habinteg, where each September we celebrate Accessible Homes Week, I like to think that I have a decent understanding of accessibility. But hearing of my beautiful little sister Hazel's experiences, and seeing some of them firsthand, have opened my eyes far wider than ever before. 

Hazel has recently become a regular wheelchair user. The picture (left) was taken a few weeks ago during a rock concert we attended at Halifax Piece Hall. I have to say that the venue is excellent, and the staff worked very hard to make the venue and concert as accessible as possible.

Visitable or not visitable?

Hazel used the concert as a reason to come over to Yorkshire from her home in Wales and stay with me for a few days. Immediately, her visit highlighted the issues with the design of my house: There are six steps up to the front door (see below, right) and then, once inside, no toilet on the same level as the entrance.

The building regulations offers the accessible and adaptable standard, also known as M4(2), which ensures that new homes have step free access and a toilet that’s not only at entrance level, but laid out to work for wheelchair users. As illustrated by my sister’s visit, my home doesn’t meet that standard. 

Hazel also visited several of her childhood friends during the trip and not a single one of her friends live in a home with level access and, again, the issue of getting to a toilet was a problem at each house. This meant her visits to her friends required careful planning and were often cut short.

While Hazel's friends don’t intentionally live in homes that make it difficult for wheelchair users, the original design and build standards of these houses appear not to include any allowance or consideration for wheelchair users.

Adaptations

Hazel's own home in Wales, despite being built in the last 10 years, has needed some significant adaptations to create a useable house for her. I say ‘useable’ as the adaptations, whilst expensive, disruptive and time consuming, have made the house more liveable for Hazel, rather than entirely meeting her needs. 

If more thought had gone into building to the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard (providing the space and other features needed for future adaptations) it would have made Hazel’s adaptations easier to complete. She would have had a home that is fully accessible for her.

I know Hazel enjoys her visits and the ability to catch up with her friends. But each visit, including her stay in my house, was tinged with concerns about "how will I…." or "how do I get to…." or "should we meet somewhere else?". This shouldn’t have to be the case.

This is why we need research like our 2025 forecast for accessible homes, which analysed the accessible housing policies across 311 local plans in England.

What’s the forecast?

We all need to know that around four in 10 of all new homes being planned in England over the next 10 years will not be built to the accessible and adaptable standard or the wheelchair user standard.

The data shows that one new wheelchair user home is being planned for every 2,006 people in the North West in the next decade compared with one for every 210 Londoners… the percentage of all affordable homes due to be wheelchair user homes is 8.9%, while the percentage in the open market is around 3.3%. Meanwhile, some local authorities aren’t planning to build wheelchair user homes in the open market at all.

If the Labour Government makes good on the previous government’s decision to raise the accessibility level of all new homes to the accessible and adaptable standard, it would mean more housing choice for disabled and older people, and ensure that future generations really do have a home for life. I hope the Chief Executives of all Local Planning Authorities are able to take a look at the results of our 2025 forecast for accessible homes and consider a disabled family member or friend whose home isn’t easy to navigate, and whose life is made all the more difficult for that.

More can and should be done to ensure – as the London Plan states – that 10% of all new-build homes are built to the M4(3) wheelchair user standard, with all the rest built to the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard. It would provide greater housing choice, quality of life and independence for all. Come October, it’ll be 10 years since the M4(2) and M4(3) building standards were introduced, so why are we still treading water?

Visit www.habinteg.org.uk/localplans to read our 2025 forecast for accessible homes.