Press pack – Housing Action #AccessDenied
Action on Monday 29th July 2024, 12pm at Parliament Square and then on to 10 Downing Street
Disabled people will protest at Parliament Square, demanding urgent action to ensure new homes are built to meet everybody’s needs.
- On Monday 29th July 2024, 12pm at Parliament Square and then on to 10 Downing Street until 1:45pm.
The protest will include contributions from Disabled people and their organisations who will talk about their experience of inaccessible homes.
The protesters will also deliver a letter signed by Disabled-led and housing organisations to Downing Street. These organisations, including Inclusion London, Disability Rights UK and many others, represent thousands of members across the UK, including Disabled people and people in inaccessible housing.
Contact information for press inquiries
- To find out more about the protest
- To get more detailed quotes from us, or
- If you need help from us to arrange interviews with Disabled people, to share their personal experiences
Please contact Rensa Gaunt, our Communications Manager at
Rensa.Gaunt@InclusionLondon.org.uk, 07561064227 (call, text or WhatsApp)
We have case studies listed below and a list of Disabled people happy to speak to the media about their experience of living in an inaccessible home.
Why are we protesting?
In England there are 9.8 million Disabled people and 1.2 million of these people live in London.[1] Around 1.8 million households in England have an identified need for accessible housing, of whom 580,000 are working age.[2]
The existing housing stock is often not accessible, and the majority of homes cannot be adapted to meet changing needs. A person with a mobility impairment can only visit fewer than 1 in 10 homes in England[3].
The shortage of wheelchair accessible housing is particularly bad, with 400,000 wheelchair users currently living in unsuitable homes.[4]
104,000 Disabled people are on council waiting lists for accessible and adaptable homes, and it could take up to 47 years to get a new-build wheelchair accessible home at current rates[5].
If a home is not accessible, people can’t get in or out independently, or use all of the facilities such as the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Inaccessible homes make people dependant on care and support from others, they impact on our health, reduce our chances of employment and make it difficult to live an equal life.
Why are there so few accessible homes?
Older homes have not been built to accessible standards and can be difficult to adapt.
But in terms of new homes, developers across England are still not building homes to the M4(2) ‘accessible and adaptable’ standard. That is, they are not building homes that have a baseline of accessibility and that can be adapted to meet the needs of Disabled and older people.
Even fewer homes meet the higher M4(3) wheelchair user standard.
This means that we are being locked out of a generation of new homes too.
The action we want
We want the Government to raise the minimum standards for new build homes, so that we can live in and stay in our homes for years to come.
2 years ago (29th July 2022), the previous Government promised to raise minimum standards for new build homes, to ensure that the homes that are built can be adapted to meet Disabled people’s needs. But nothing has happened since then. Continued delays only mean a poorer quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Disabled people living in unsuitable housing.
The previous Government also rejected the option to nationally mandate a minimum proportion of homes built to M4(3) wheelchair-accessible housing standards despite the significant need for such housing.
Accessible housing is often not affordable either. Disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, be on lower incomes or out of work compared to non-disabled people. This disparity makes it even harder for Disabled people to live in suitable conditions. Most Disabled people cannot afford to rent privately and buy their own homes and need social housing for the security of tenure it provides. After decades of austerity and underinvestment in social housing, we need more accessible social housing.
We are asking the new Government to:
- Make the M4(2) ‘accessible and adaptable’ standard the minimum requirement for all new build homes, as the previous Government committed to on 29th July 2022
- Set a minimum target of 10% of new build homes to meet the M4(3) wheelchair user standard
- Ensure that the majority of accessible homes are built in the social rented sector, as more Disabled people need these kind of homes
What are (in)accessible homes?
We have created a briefing on the supply of accessible housing, which gives an overview of the different housing standards (‘The Building Regulations 2010 Part M’).
It outlines the difference between:
- M4(1), the current minimum standard in England,
- M4(2), accessible and adaptable standard, and
- M4(3), wheelchair user standard
Quotes
Disabled people will demand that the Government urgently takes all necessary steps to raise minimum accessibility standards for new build homes.
Svetlana Kotova, Director of Campaigns and Justice at Inclusion London said:
We all need a home where we can just be ourselves. But it is a scandal that so many Disabled people across England cannot enjoy their homes fully, and many cannot use the most basic facilities in their home. We are tired of empty promises, and we need the Government to take urgent action. Otherwise, there is a real risk that none of the 1.5 million new homes they want to build will be accessible. Accessible homes save money and lives.
Laura Vicinanza, Policy and Stakeholder Engagement Manager at Inclusion London, said:
Housing is the cornerstone of independent living. Yet, hundreds of thousands of Disabled and older people across England are living in unsuitable and unaffordable homes. This is unacceptable. We have heard lots of ambitious words from the previous Government about the need to improve the housing conditions of Disabled people in this country, but words mean nothing if they don’t turn into action. Disabled people have been waiting for too long and expect action now. On 29th July we are travelling to the steps of Downing Street to send an important message to the new Government – make accessible housing a priority. Our open letter is loud and clear – build the homes Disabled people desperately need. There’s no time to waste.
This protest is organised by Inclusion London and is supported by Disabled people’s organisations across England (view list of signatories).
Case studies
Sam
Sam is a 25-year-old wheelchair user living in Bristol. Sam now lives in a fully wheelchair accessible home but finding his current home has been an extremely gruelling challenge.
Sam’s journey to find an accessible home started when he graduated from university a few years ago. “After graduating at the University of the West of England in Bristol in 2021, I needed to move out of my student accommodation and find another place to live. I found a job, but I couldn’t find anywhere to live in the private rented sector. There was not a single wheelchair accessible property available.”
Sam joined South Gloucestershire Council’s waiting list for social housing, but the shortage of accessible council properties led the council to place him into temporary accommodation.
“I waited two years on the council housing waiting list for a fully wheelchair accessible flat. The council told me that there just weren’t enough homes that were suitable to my needs. I lived three months in hotel rooms, some of which were not accessible at all. I couldn’t cook, I had to order takeaways, I didn’t have my own space to work or relax in. I was just in one room and it felt very isolating.
“Eventually, the council managed to place me into temporary accommodation, but the property was very far away from my workplace, my friends and my carers. It was really difficult for me to get the care and support I needed while I was in temporary accommodation because some of my carers didn’t live nearby and couldn’t drive. As a young person, it felt very isolating. I thought: why am I not allowed to live independently like the rest of my friends?”
The lack of wheelchair accessible properties meant Sam was pressured to move into a property in Thornbury, a town outside of Bristol. However, he refused it because the public transportation between there and Bristol was extremely unreliable and he felt it would be extremely isolating.
“The council did find a property for me but it was in Thornbury… They really wanted me to go, they were sort of pushing me to go there because it was an ‘accessible’ bungalow that was newly built. I was very stubborn and fought against it because I knew how far out it was and how isolating it would feel being in the middle of nowhere.”
You can hear more about Sam’s experience, in his own words here: BBC Radio 4 – My Name Is…, My Name is Sam
Jo Ann
Jo Ann is a wheelchair user who lives in Salford, Greater Manchester. She has had great difficulty in accessing suitable and accessible housing, and she has impairments that are invisible at times. She is a campaigner from Salford Disabled People Against Cuts.
In the past year, Jo Ann has finally been offered an accessible home from her housing association. However, she has been trying to get an accessible social rented home for over 20 years, since an Occupational Therapist first recommended a fully adapted property for her in 2004.
During this time, she has faced repeated refusals and delays from her housing association, having to go through multiple complaints procedures. Jo Ann says “I’m being helped finally, but it’s only because I carried on complaining and having tenacity and resistance… It was 10 years of complaining, repeatedly, 10 years, it’s taken.”
“14 times at least, the recommended wet room was refused to me by hostile housing staff when I lived in a feasible property. Meanwhile, a wet room was done for a neighbour in an identical house, in the same housing association. I complained even to the Homeless Office in Salford but I was moved to unsuitable, non-wheelchair property. I was forced to sort it myself and find the temporary places for the wet room, which became 3 temporary places!”
“Over the past 20 years I was moved many times to unsuitable properties, yet in 2004 a fully adapted property was recommended by the occupational therapist. I was even moved out of my medical band when I needed the second bedroom for a carer and had to get my own stairlift. It’s been a nightmare for me and my partner.”
Jo Ann used to live in an inaccessible property with her partner. “I had three OT reports done there, and all of my adaptations were repeatedly refused”. “A wet room was recommended, I had to wait nearly a year for that and straight away it was refused”. This meant that Jo Ann would injure herself trying to wash in an inaccessible bathroom “I slipped down the stairs too… although I had a stairlift, I did slip on the stairs trying to go down it”.
Jo Ann has had to use local swimming pool shower facilities: “For over 20 years I was having to wash at swimming pools instead, going to the shower for people with disabilities. I hope other women never have to go through this nightmare for their shower and adaptations. I’ve been left deeply disturbed by it all and it’s left a lasting mark on my mind.”
Living in this home had a massive impact on her mental health, “I couldn’t endure it anymore, I was getting these distressed episodes. I call them distress attacks where I was highly tormented”. “My doctor has written … saying that my mental health has been adversely affected”.
Eventually she had to move into temporary accommodation. However, she was moved away from her partner and local community. “I couldn’t get carers where they rehoused me. I was not rehoused properly… you’re just rehoused into any old place, basically, that might have something adapted about it, like some rails”. This meant that Jo Ann ended up living in three different temporary accommodations in the past three years, and even a refuge to get a break from the inaccessible property she was living in.
After years of fighting, Jo Ann has finally been offered a new-build accessible bungalow by her housing association, which she is set to move into in August. This new home will have key accessibility features like a wet room, widened doorways, and an adapted kitchen, which Jo Ann hopes will greatly improve her quality of life and mental wellbeing. “I think it will help me to study again, I would like to study. I’m getting my care sorted, it’ll go better. It’ll improve my care after I move”.
Jo Ann strongly believes there is an urgent need for the Government to build more wheelchair accessible social housing, as the lack of such housing has had such a devastating impact on her life over the past two decades, including having to take legal action. “We received a poor service from two legal aid solicitors. After being advised to formally complain to my housing in 2022, I had a very prolonged wait again for a 4th Occupational Therapist report then to be completed, re-proving my needs for a 4th time. I had to complain formally, repeatedly, for the permanent adapted property. I’ve had to wait 20 years for the accessible home I need. I had to endure four very prolonged waits in all for the community Occupational Therapist, from 2015 to 2022 – each wait a type of very prolonged misery.”
Because Housing Associations cannot access full Disabled Facilities Grant funding, they are not able to complete adaptations in a timely manner, to convert inaccessible properties to accessible ones. “The 50/50 funding caused me instead multiple moves, moved 4 times now by my Housing Association. 3 of the moves in the last 3 and a half years. It caused me to have to live apart from my partner also for these 3 and a half years. My partner, who remained at the feasible property, continues to be distressed, as he is subject to the ‘bedroom tax’ from when I was forced out for the wet room – I had a separate bedroom as I’ve special bed for my spine. Each April he is having to pay 2 bedroom taxes now for some months as it’s a 3 bed property.”
“I am trying to change the law. Under the new arrangement of the grant in various Housing Associations, a woman wanting to stay in a feasible property is failed, not assisted there and the wet room and all major adaptions are blocked there multiple times.”
“When my Housing Association move me again, it will be my 14th move in Manchester since my dad returning here in 1985. The Disabled Facilities Grant has been eroded. It’s happening in various Housing Associations and for us it’s greatly distressing. It’s time now to restore the government grant for Housing Associations so that every disabled renter has a chance to get the support they need. This is the second petition I have started to Restore The Grant.”
On the day of the housing action, Jo Ann will be calling on the Government to prioritise accessible housing. “Things have got to change, we’ve got to fight for it. It’s in our hands now, we have to keep up the pressure”.
Notes for editors
Inclusion London is a Disability Equality Organisation led by Disabled people. We campaign on a local and national level.
We provide support to over 70 London DDPOs (organisations run by and for Deaf and Disabled people), which provide services to over 76,000 Deaf and Disabled Londoners.
View our Housing Action web page
View our Letter to the Government web page
View our social media pages: X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
The hashtags for the action are #AccessDenied and #Housing
ENDS
[1] Office for National Statistics (2021) Disability, England and Wales: Census 2021 Disability, England and Wales – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
[2] Habinteg & Papworth Trust (2016) The Hidden Housing Market download.cfm (habinteg.org.uk)
[3] English Housing Survey (2019) English Housing Survey 2018-19 2018-19_EHS_Adaptations_and_Accessability_Fact_Sheet.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
[4] Habinteg (2023) Living not existing: The economic value and social value of wheelchair user homes Living not existing: The economic and social value of wheelchair user homes (habinteg.org.uk)
[5] Habinteg (2022) Wheelchair users subjected to decades-long wait for new accessible housing https://www.habinteg.org.uk/latest-news/wheelchair-users-subjected-to-decadeslong-wait-for-new-accessible-housing-2004/