On Tuesday 1^st March, on the second day of the Committee stage of the Housing and Planning Bill in the House of Lords, Minister Baroness Williams confirmed that Government has committed £400 million to build 8,000 homes for “elderly and vulnerable people and those with disabilities.” This is undeniably welcome news, but when viewed against the prescription of 200,000 starter homes, one has to wonder about the Government’s appreciation of the plight of the 24,000 disabled households waiting for wheelchair accessible homes. 

Add into the mix the uncertainty about the future of the current supply of affordable accessible homes posed by the extension of “right to buy” and the mandatory sale of “high value” council property, the impact of 8,000 new homes divided between older people, vulnerable people and disabled people really comes into perspective. 

We need our government to take this issue seriously and adopt measures to end the chronic shortage of housing for disabled people. Aspire is calling for the Housing and Planning Bill to be amended to put these measures in place.

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