Disability and the built environment: increasing supply of accessible homes
7 December 2016
The Women and Equalities Committee asks if enough is being done to build homes that are accessible to everyone now, and into the future. Previous sessions have sought to identify the key issues and priorities for disabled people relating to the built environment as well as the effectiveness of the planning system.
- Watch Parliament TV: Disability and the built environment
- Inquiry: Disability and the built environment
- Women and Equalities Committee
Lack of accessible housing
The Committee will hear from the Department for Communities and Local Government, the GLA, Habinteg and housebuilders Taylor Wimpey.
A lack of accessible housing available to disabled people was a significant theme in the written evidence submitted to this inquiry. The first witness panel will examine whether the current system can deliver the accessible housing that we need, and why developers aren't already building homes to the highest standards of accessibility.
Shared space
In the second panel of this session, Committee members will move on to consider a range of views about the use of 'shared space' principles in designing the streetscape. It will ask why they appear to be so popular when many disabled people have expressed fear of using them.
Committee Chair, Maria Miller MP, said:
"We have already heard about the severe difficulties faced by people trying to find suitable accessible homes. In this session we will be looking to explore how these problems can be addressed. Key questions we would like to answer include where accessibility features in Government plans for housing, whether planning processes and frameworks are adequate and whether commercial viability is preventing more accessible properties from being built. Our second panel of witnesses will consider the use of ‘shared spaces' and we will seek to understand the divergent views on their use as part of the streetscape."
Witnesses
Wednesday 7 December 2016, The Thatcher Room, Portcullis House
At 9.30am
- Bob Ledsome, Deputy Director, Building Regulations and Standards, Department for Communities and Local Government
- Jennifer Peters, Strategic Planning Manager, Greater London Authority
- Andrew Gibson, Vice Chair, Habinteg
- Nick Rogers, Design Director, Taylor Wimpey UK Limited.
At 10.30am
- Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE
- Andrew Hugill, Director of Policy and Technical Affairs, Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport
- Benjamin Hamilton-Baillie
Further information
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