Learn more about accessible homes & multigenerational living from our webinar | Tenant news

Find out what Habinteg is doing to help Local Authorities plan more accessible homes and hear about a new vision for multi-generational homes, in our Accessible Homes Week webinar recording.

Close to 200 people tuned in, live, for our joint online event with our inclusive design expert’s Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE) recently, to hear more about the government’s decision to make sure all new homes are more accessible and adaptable in the future.

Local housing plans

Opening the session, Habinteg’s CEO, Nick Apetroaie, said: “We need local planning authorities to be proactive in planning for the housing needs of wheelchair users by specifying how many such homes are required in each plan.”

Nick handed over to Habinteg’s Director of Social Impact & External Affairs, Christina McGill, who led an informative panel discussion introducing Natasha Davies from CAE first. They spoke about the real need for accessible homes and how the Housing sector should prepare for changes following the government’s decision.

You’ll find Natasha about five and a half minutes into the event’s recording .  

Practical obstacles

Meanwhile, Matt Kelly, Habinteg’s Head of Development, talked about the top five practical obstacles developers may face when building accessible & adaptable homes.

He said: “Habinteg built a development, which we thought was fantastically accessible until we noted that any potential residents, who were wheelchair users, were going to find there was no dropped curb outside the home.”

Take a look at what else Matt had to say around 30 minutes into the recording.        

Multigenerational households

The audience was also treated to a new take on family living from Ben Williamson, Director of Architecture, Phippen Randall & Parkes, who spoke about building homes for multigenerational living.

Mentioning that “...maybe the children don’t leave – about 20% of 25 to 34-year-olds live with their parents – or maybe you can’t afford to go into a care home. In those situations, you end up with multigenerational households.”

If that’s your household, see Ben’s presentation about 48 minutes into the video.

You can find out more about Habinteg’s annual Accessible Homes Week and check out the week’s blogs at  www.habinteg.org.uk/fah .