Attzaz Rashid: How Barratt London is leading the way in accessible home design | Policy blog

Attzaz Rashid is the Head of Design at Barratt London. His expertise has spanned across residential, mixed-use and commercial development, and he has recently played a lead role in the design of accessible homes at Barratt London’s development, Bermondsey Heights. He says, as we strive to address the UK's housing crisis in the face of a world that appears to be facing an existential crisis, we must address what kind of society do we want to build for our children.

With the new Labour government in place, there has been a renewed energy for home-buyers and housebuilders, with the party’s promise of 1.5 million new homes within the next five years . But whether these homes will be accessible is another question.

Currently, only 9% of homes in England have the most basic accessibility features – and a wheelchair user joining a local authority waiting list may have to wait up to 47 years for a new build wheelchair-accessible home.

Equality, accessibility and inclusion are not just buzz words that we’ve seen popularised in the last few years, these factors are a necessity in the daily lives of individuals with disabilities, where lack thereof can affect their sense of freedom, autonomy and well-being.

Need for accessibility & inclusion

With  1.8 million people requiring accessible or adaptable housing , there’s a vast gap in the housing market, where the need for accessibility is not being tended to; a gap that Barratt London is actively striving to close.

Our Bermondsey Heights development – which has a total of 163 apartments – has recently launched 20 accessible homes that will meet both M4(2) and M4(3) standards. The M4(3) homes will be exclusively marketed to wheelchair users for the first 12 months, with a number of these homes available through Discount Market Sale, which allows wheelchair users within Southwark a minimum 30% discount on the market sale.

With the help and advice of our partner, AccessAble , inclusive design features are available as standard, including increased door widths and hallways to allow for easy movement throughout the home, additional space provision in key rooms and lower light switches.

Further bespoke adaptions can be made by purchasers to suit their own individual needs, such as rise and fall kitchen counters, which allow the height of a counter to be manually adjusted, easy access storage and wet rooms.

Consulting disabled people

Throughout the design process, it was clear that the objective would be to ensure that individuals with disabilities can navigate an entire development with the same dignity as anyone else living there.

At Barratt London, we consider the complete customer journey, and accessibility is a cornerstone of our commitment to building inclusive and sustainable communities – in fact, 10% of our homes across the capital are constructed with DNA that lends itself to easy adaption for accessibility. However, accessibility measures go beyond the homes themselves.

Collaborating with a consultation group comprising disabled people, one of whom is Habinteg Insight Group member Tanvi Vyas helped us understand the home-buying journey from their perspective. With their guidance, we made certain the full process of purchasing an accessible home was truly inclusive, including ensuring the language used by sales advisers and providing support for any viewings on site.

Inclusive communities

Fostering inclusive communities for our residents and the surrounding area inspired our partnership with Whizz Kidz , the UK’s leading charity for young wheelchair users. With Whizz Kidz, we launched a new guide for inclusive play areas for disabled children. Play areas are an essential space for physical and social development in young people, however, lack of accessibility automatically excludes many young disabled people from benefitting of the same enrichment and fun as their peers.

The new guidance will create an encouraging and collaborative atmosphere in all play areas that will cater to diverse play styles for children with different abilities. As the first housebuilder in the country to launch an inclusive play design standard, we hope to start installing the play areas across all our developments, with the goal of 125 new inclusive play areas to be installed across England, Scotland and Wales by the end of next year.

Across the industry, as we strive to address the UK's housing crisis in the face of a world that seems to be facing an existential moral crisis, we must ask ourselves, what kind of society do we want to build for our children? I would suggest the least we should do is build a society that is inclusive, equitable, and accessible to all. By prioritising accessible housing delivery, we can create a brighter future for generations to come.