New regulations on accessibility for new homes cannot come soon enough | Policy blog

First published in Inside Housing

It is good to see minimum standards for accessibility proposed for new homes, says our CEO Nick Apetroaie , and the government must ensure they are quickly brought into force.

Since joining Habinteg last year, tenants have taught me the remarkable impact an accessible home can have. They’ve shared with me the profound sense of relief and improved well-being that comes from being able to manage their day-to-day lives with independence and dignity.

This is the impact that Habinteg strives for. For more than 50 years, Habinteg has provided mixed developments where homes designed to meet the needs of wheelchair users sit invisibly alongside properties designed to be accessible and adaptable. Neighbours can easily visit one another, have older relatives to stay and negotiate the daily demands of family life in places designed to include anyone.

Patchy use of building standards

Since 2015, English building regulations have included an optional accessible and adaptable standard known as ‘M4(2)’. Based on Habinteg’s Lifetime Homes standard, the National Planning Policy Framework instructed that it should be used to plan for the needs of older and disabled people, along with the higher ‘wheelchair dwelling’ standard known as ‘M4(3)’.

However, use of the standards has been patchy. Habinteg research conducted in 2020 found M4(2) referred to in only 96 of England’s 324 local plans.

Since its introduction, Habinteg has campaigned for the M4(2) standard to become the default for all new homes. Given that we live in an ageing population, and that just 9% of English homes offer even the most basic of accessibility features, it’s been hard for us to understand why as a society we would want to build anything else.

Over the seven years since 2015, a consensus grew. Influential bodies such as the parliamentary Women and Equalities Select Committee, the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission backed Habinteg’s position, not to mention the members of the Housing Made for Everyone (HoME) coalition and the raft of individuals, charities and other partners.

New housing baseline

Last month, the government announced the welcome news that the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard will become the regulatory baseline for new housing. The decision came in their long-awaited response to the 2020 public consultation on the topic in which over 98% of respondents were in favour of the move to make M4(2) the new minimum.

While the announcement stopped short of specifying a proportion of all new homes to be built to the full wheelchair dwelling standard, known as M4(3), taking this step to up-rate the regulatory baseline to the accessible and adaptable standard will help make the most of every new home built.

It will also give developers much-wanted certainty about the default standard required wherever in the country they are building.

An M4(2) home offers more liveable space to all, while also future-proofing for the changing needs of successive households. Think stairlifts, grab-rails or level access shower spaces – any adaptations that are required will be more economical and faster to make.

Some people living in these new homes will be able to retain sufficient independence to reduce demand for in-home care services and to delay or even avoid unwanted (and expensive) moves to alternative provision, such as residential care. Good news for the people concerned and great news for stretched local authority budgets.

Wheelchair accessible homes needed

Fully wheelchair accessible properties are still in woefully short supply, and this announcement makes no provision for them. M4(2) homes cannot be expected to meet the daily living needs of every disabled person. However, there are opportunities here, too. Local planning teams, relieved of the burden of establishing a local policy for M4(2) homes, will be able to focus their efforts on planning for fully wheelchair-accessible properties. We’ll be asking the government to encourage this and to firmly emphasise expectations that every local plan makes provision for wheelchair-accessible dwellings using the M4(3) standard.

In the meantime, the benefits of the new default standard cannot come soon enough. Disabled and older people deserve the independence and improved well-being that comes from having a home that meets their needs.