Greater Expectations: How the Social housing Green Paper Could Strengthen Voices of Disabled People | #ForAccessibleHomes News

by Angus Cleary, Inquiry Head, Inquiry and Investigations team, Equality and Human Rights Commission

The UK has a long, proud history of providing social housing.  However, the supply of homes hasn’t kept up with demand for many years now, neglecting the needs of millions of disabled and non-disabled people. The UK government has an opportunity to change this with the reform promised by the Social Housing Green Paper. We welcome action to empower residents and help people live in decent homes. However it is disappointing to see that little consideration has been made for the housing needs of the 13.3 million disabled people in Britain.  Currently only 7% of UK housing stock has four basic accessibility features. Cost benefit studies have consistently evidenced that accessible housing results in significant health and social care savings.

Social housing which is accessible is particularly important for disabled people - it provides security of tenure, affordability, Landlords will normally assist with necessary adaptations and provide support to ensure a tenancy succeeds.

It is implied in the Social Housing Green Paper that housing for disabled people can be met through specialist provision and niche solutions. The reality is, however, that the vast majority of disabled and older people live in and are cared for in general needs housing. What we need to impress upon the government is that all housing, and in particular social housing, needs to be built to the Lifetime Homes standard. This standard has 16 accessible features and importantly makes it quick and easy to install most common adaptations such as wet rooms, lower kitchen counters, ramps or stairlifts. Fully wheelchair accessible properties are also in desperately short supply.  A recent freedom of information request to local authorities by spinal injuries charity, Aspire, identified the average wait for a wheelchair accessible house as five years.

Where the private sector could do more for accessible housing

With 1 million people on local authority waiting lists, the private rented sector is the only realistic option for many. 1 in 3 disabled people living in this sector are struggling in unsuitable accommodation, with their dignity being stripped away each day – for example, we frequently hear examples of disabled tenants not having the facilities to wash properly.  However, finding any accommodation at all can be challenging. According to homeless charity, Shelter, 5 of the country’s leading letting agents refuse those on benefits – including in work benefits. With the disability employment gap at 50%, disabled people in particular are severely impacted.

Closing the data gap on accessible housing

Here at the Equality and Human Rights Commission we have recently completed a formal inquiry into housing for disabled people. We found that local authorities assessed themselves as having poor information on which social housing in their area is suitable for disabled people. This leads to a great deal of waste and inefficiency as expensive adaptations are routinely ripped out rather than the properties being suitably allocated. Local authorities typically have poor information on disabled people, and likely future demand for accessible properties. The exception to this is for those who have retained their council housing, where the data is generally very good. The Green Paper provides an opportunity to require local authorities to close this information gap, and the widespread use of accessible housing registers would greatly contribute to this.

Empowering tenants

The focus on tenants’ voice is vitally important, and the proposals to empower tenants, through stronger complaints mechanisms, should in principle address many of the shortfalls in social housing. However, as their issues and concerns can be very distinct, disabled people need their own groups. We came across some impressive practices in our research, where disabled tenants groups had been actively involved in shaping services, this had had a dramatic impact on performance. In one example, where the group led a review of practices, it led to the waiting time for installing adaptations coming down from 18 months to just 3 weeks.

Tackling anti-social behaviour

A repeated theme in both our research and the Green Paper is dealing with antisocial behaviour. We would urge caution in this area, as perceived anti-social behaviour can be linked to non-physical disabilities such as mental health conditions, autism or those with learning disabilities. Disabled people are much more likely to be the target of harassment than the perpetrators. There is no reliable data on how many people with mental health conditions have been evicted. However, Joseph Rowntree Foundation research has identified that those with mental health conditions are more at risk.

Transparency to drive action

The Green Paper provides an opportunity to clarify the mandate of social housing and take it back to its roots. If the effectiveness and appropriateness of social housing is to be measured, then it should be measured on the commitment to vulnerable tenants, including disabled people. Everyone has the right to live independently. Providing good accessible social housing and a supportive landlord has the power to transform lives. But we need action and we need it now.

Thanks to Angus Cleary for supporting #ForAccessibleHomes2018. Click the link to find out more about the Equality and Human Rights Commission work in the housing sector. Follow @EHRC