Recognising our hidden housing crisis | Policy blog

Gavin Smart is the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) the professional body for people in the housing sector. Here he explains why CIH is calling for a significant step up in the delivery of new homes, and why accessible and adaptable homes must be part of that delivery.

England has been facing a housing shortage for decades.

Research has demonstrated the need for 340,000 new homes to be built annually over a 15 year period, of which 90,000 homes need to be for social rent – the most affordable tenure – especially in light of the recent cost of living crisis which is hitting households hard.

CIH has consistently been calling for this step up in delivery of new housing, but we know that it’s not simply about numbers; fundamentally it’s about building the right homes in the right places to meet the needs of current and future households.

Part of that is the pressing need to deliver more accessible and adaptable homes, including homes suitable for people using wheelchairs, which is why CIH is pleased to support this Accessible Homes week.

Hidden housing crisis

In addition to the evidence of the need for more homes, a past investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission revealed what it termed our hidden crisis – the housing experience of disabled people – recognising that for disabled people, the impact of the shortage of suitable housing is particularly acute.

Disabled working aged people living in unsuitable housing are four times more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people, producing a significant negative economic hit on them, as well as the state.

The current cost of living crisis is deepening that for disabled people, as illustrated in CIH’s recent briefing. Added to this is the fact that an unadapted and unsuitable home increases the need for people to have help to undertake daily living tasks, at a time when the social care crisis is also acute, and providing that care is inherently more difficult where adaptations are lacking.

Unsuitable housing & poor health

Habinteg estimates that over 400,000 wheelchair users in England are living in unsuitable homes. There is also a higher proportion of people experiencing homelessness and living in temporary accommodation who are disabled.

Adaptations cannot be made to temporary accommodation, which means some people are living for years in unsuitable homes, especially as only approximately 400 wheelchair homes on average are built every year.

This has huge implications given the critical role of our homes for our health and wellbeing. Recent research from the University of Manchester shows the links between unsuitable housing and poorer health outcomes for older and disabled people, separate from any other clinical or non-housing interventions.

Articles illustrating what living in such accommodation means in practice highlight the stark reality and the negative experience not only for the disabled person but also their wider family.

Awaiting government commitment

As part of the Housing Made for Everyone (HoME) coalition, CIH welcomed the government’s stated commitment in July 2022 to require all new homes to be built to higher accessible and adaptable standards.

Apart from ensuring that our homes can be more effectively and quickly adapted to changing needs, it would enable local planning authorities to focus directly on the current and future needs for fully wheelchair accessible homes.

However, we are still waiting for the measures needed to make that commitment a reality. In the meantime, disabled people requiring a wheelchair accessible home are at the acute end of our hidden housing crisis.

Whilst it is only a small proportion of those 340,000 new homes needed, the negative impact on those people and their households cannot be underestimated. And the real impact in terms of the wider social and economic costs to public services is not known, which is why we welcome the much-needed evidence that Habinteg and the London School of Economic’s research brings.

We need to understand the wider picture for society and the real lived experience of people struggling in their homes to galvanise action. A safe and decent home is a foundation for a good life, and that’s why CIH is pleased to support Habinteg in its call for more wheelchair accessible homes. This Accessible Homes week, it is time to bring to light the real impact of our hidden housing crisis, and to change it.