Written evidence submitted by Bristol City Council [DPH 034]

1) What can the Government do to ensure disabled residents across England have access to accessible and adaptable housing?

Across Bristol, like most Core Cities, there are significant shortages of adapted and accessible homes and with the rising number of older and disabled residents living in the city meeting their needs are adding additional pressure on local health and social care services. Approximately 10.7% of the Bristol adult population self-identify as disabled, and 17.2% of all Bristol residents (19.5% of adults 16+) could be considered to be disabled under the Equalities Act.

In relation to increasing the number of homes that are accessible there needs to be a fundamental rethink of the range of standards required of both new build accommodation and existing homes. The aspiration should be that all new built homes should not only meet Part M4(1) of the Building Regulations but that developers should have a requirement to meet Part M4(2) ‘Accessible and Adaptable dwelling standards. In addition, the Building Regulations should also be updated to ensure where any planning application is required for alteration or a ‘material change of use’, there should be as a requirement that the new building/change of use should require Part 4(2) of the Building Regulations to be met.

Similarly better engagement with national organisations like Shelter including those that provide support and guidance is fundamental to understand how issues around accessibility can and will evolve in the future.

2) Does the National Planning Policy Framework ensure the Equality Act 2010 is complied with when building housing?

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) does not explicitly mention the Equalities Act. However, the document does list older people and people with a disability and there is emphasis on 'place making' - achieving well-designed attractive places that are safe, inclusive, accessible and promote health and wellbeing. The NPPF does speak to ‘good and inclusive design’ and defines ‘inclusive design’ as “designing the built environment, including buildings and their surrounding spaces, to ensure that they can be accessed and used by everyone.” The National Planning Policy Framework tells local authorities that inclusive design is important but does not make its legal status sufficiently clear. Owing to the unclear legal status of ‘inclusive and good design’, some may argue that the impact and effectiveness of the NPPF will only be effective if meaningfully carried through into Local Plan policies. While guidance exists in the NPPF and the relevant planning practice guidance, the key means for assuring that this guidance is followed in practice is examination of those plans by the Planning Inspectorate. 

However, where a local authority has no local plan, can sufficient assurance be given that homes are being planned with ‘inclusive and good design’, especially without the clear legal status of ‘inclusivity’ within the NPPF?

Government should explore how to strengthen this duty making it sufficiently clear for local authorities or provide updated guidance to the NPPF that seeks to codify what we mean by inclusive and good design with reference to accessibility.

3) Since the Government consultation ‘Raising accessibility standards for new homes’ (July 2022), what has been done to improve housing provisions for disabled residents in England? And has it been sufficient?

Despite the Government stating that they plan to mandate the current m4(2) requirement in building regulations as a minimum standard for all new homes, there has not been any further guidance and no advice on when this will happen. If/when this is mandated it will be mean that housing developers will need to provide homes to an m4(2) standard as a minimum which is positive. However, there will not be a mandate to deliver a percentage of new homes as “fully accessible” wheelchair user homes. This is disappointing as there is a high demand for this type of housing caused by the existing shortages in the affordable and open market sectors. The work on raising accessibility standards in new builds has not been sufficient because clear updates have not been given and the proposals do not mandate a percentage of wheelchair user homes being delivered.

4) What role should the government, Local Authorities and developers have for ensuring the delivery of suitable housing for disabled people?

In Bristol there is a growing need for accessible and adaptable housing and the Council delivering homes that are wheelchair accessible. The Local Plan is currently under review and the current proposal is that all new build housing is designed to be m4(2). This is positive as currently there are not any policy requirements to deliver m4(2) in general needs housing.  The updated Local Plan is also proposing that developers will be required to provide 10% of new build homes in proposals of 50 dwellings or more to be provided as wheelchair accessible, this is up from 2% in our current Local Plan. Developers may argue that it is too expensive to deliver homes to these standards and so the proposals made by our planning policy officers could be impacted if the planning inspector does not agree with these recommendations at the Local Plan examination.

The role of the Local authority should be:

• to monitor housing need for accessible homes, and the delivery of accessible homes (including reasons for non-delivery)
• to ensure affordable accessible homes are allocated to households that truly require these homes and to support disabled people in the moving process.
• To ensure that accessible homes are allocated to people with a need for these homes in perpetuity. (i.e., do everything we can to not loose these homes when they are re-let)
• To ensure that new build affordable housing is advertised clearly.
• to implement/update local policy. Local authorities that are in the process of updating their local plans should be increasing (and include if they don’t already) policy requirements for accessible housing (including wheelchair accessible homes) as quickly as possible for all housing types and tenures (including student, older person etc).
• to implement design specifications for accessible homes (including wheelchair homes)

The role of the Governments should be:

• to support people with disabilities by working with local authorities and developers more closely.
• to ensure that viability is not used as a reason by developers to not deliver accessible homes (or at least set parameters so robust viability assessment needs to be provided).
• to acknowledge the long-term cost savings for the public purse by providing accessible homes
• to support local government to deliver accessible homes and the savings they will generate by updating national policy as quickly as possible.
• to make sure that planning inspectors give significant weight to the arguments of local authorities that are looking to increase their policy requirements for accessible housing.
• to educate developers and local authorities on the accessible homes standards
• to support local authorities through funding for resources to monitor the delivery of accessible homes, including roles for occupational therapists that specialise in reviewing planning applications to ensure that developers proposals meet requirements, and so that the standards can be signed off on completion.
• To require housing developers (including RPs) to monitor the delivery of accessible homes (including reasons for non-delivery)

The role of developers should be:

• to take cost of providing accessible housing (including wheelchair homes) in to consideration on initial scheme appraisals.
• To acknowledge and prioritise the need for accessible housing and to prepare for changes to minimum standards.
• To work closely with local authorities to ensure delivery of accessible homes and monitor any reasons for non-delivery.
• On market homes, developers need to clearly advertise the homes as being suitable for people with disabilities (especially wheelchair accessible homes)

5) Does the Disabled Facilities Grant fully support housing adaptations?

The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is allocated through the Better Care Fund (BCF) and the guidance linked to this, provides a minimum level of support to fund home adaptations, however the current funding allocation is insufficient to meet the level of demand for these services. The flexibility now provided within the BCF guidance does enable the funding to be used to support a range of work to support disabled residents remain living independently in the community.

There is however a significant difference in approach and the use of the DFG for home adaptations within the different social housing providers operating in Bristol and nationally. Registered Providers are able to ask their tenants to apply for a DFG to fund home adaptations, whilst Local Authorities with retained stock, have to fund home adaptations for their tenants through the income from the Housing Revenue Account. This difference in funding of home adaptations is inconsistent between the different social housing providers. This should be changed to ensure all social housing providers provide their own funding to pay for home adaptations to their own stock or allow for Local Authorities with retained social housing stock to use BCF for DFG.

6) How can the Government ensure it provides sufficient provisions to support disabled residents who do not live in new build homes?

Disabled people that do not live in new build homes face significant challenges regarding home adaptions. Fewer than one in ten properties in England are currently suitable for disabled people to visit, let alone live in. Additionally, some 400,000 wheelchair users are living in homes that are neither adapted nor accessible. Changes to make non-new build properties more accessible are often relatively straightforward, like installing stair-lifts, level-access showers, and wet-rooms, wash and dry toilets, ramps, or wider doors. However, adaptations are costly, with the average adaptation provided by the government-funded DFG now more than £9,000. While adaptions under £1,000 are covered by social care, placing an increased financial burden on already stretched local authority budgets.

As more and more disabled people are forced to rent, the task of making changes to non-new build properties in the PRS is an even greater challenge. Only 8% of Disabled Facilities Grant applications come from private tenants, with many of applicants often denied adaptations by landlords who do not want disabled equipment fitted into the homes they are renting out. This lack of accessible or adapted homes means many disabled people are forced to stretch their entitlement to social care support further, because homes are not accessible.

The current government must deliver on their manifesto promise to “make housing more affordable, accessible, and suitable for disabled people and an ageing population”. They should provide better provisions to support disabled residents adapt older homes – whether this is a home owned by the disabled person or rented from a landlord. This could be done by strengthening the rights of disabled tenants in the PRS as part of the Renters (Reform) Bill. This would help to ensure that landlords comply with requests to make properties accessible, with the DGF continuing to support landlords make such changes.

7) What can the Government do to support disabled tenants in the private rented sector?

Nationally, disabled people are less likely to own our homes across all ages, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) finding that older Disabled people can be up to 20% less likely to own their homes than their non-disabled peers. In Bristol, recent research was conducted into the Private Rented Sector (PRS) and a tenant experience survey was conducted which received 2,500 responses. Of these responses, 14% stated that they were disabled. In addition to survey data, a written response from a disabled tenant aged between 25 and 34 was submitted. The submission read:

“My current landlady just served us a section 21 and I am finding it impossible to even get viewings for rooms, agencies won’t talk to me as my salary is too low (I work 4 days a week due to my disability), Spareroom and Facebook messages are not even being seen because there are so many people desperately looking and not enough rooms. I have not had a single landlord who has looked after the property promptly and been fair and reasonable to me”

This written response outlines that the demand for housing in Bristol is not being met. In Bristol, there are currently 19,000 households on the social housing waiting list, along with over 1,200 households living in temporary accommodation. Bristol is also the fastest growing among the UK Core Cities with its population increasing 10% between 2011 and 2021. Bristol City Council is using its existing powers to try and address the issues of affordability, quality, and access within the PRS. However, government must better assist LAs in delivering new accessible affordable housing which can meet the needs of disabled people.

The research found that disabled tenants face a disproportionately higher number of landlord-tenant problems – with 80% of disabled tenants experiencing such problems with their landlord or letting agent in the last five years. Disabled renters were also more likely to rent from letting agents with 40% securing their property through a letting agent compared to 30% of those without a disability.

Over the last ten years the average house price in England and Wales increased by 67%. Bristol has experienced this increase especially sharply: house prices over the same period rose by 93%, around £161,000. This has resulted in the population, including disabled people, renting rather than being able to purchase a home they can make their own. Lack of affordable housing to both rent and buy means that disabled residents are being priced out you of their existing neighbourhoods and pushed towards the city’s periphery, or out of the city altogether, often away from their existing support networks. It also becomes harder to secure home adaptions to improve accessibility.

Most routes for improving the experience of tenants in the PRS requires local authorities, in collaboration with others, engaging in more activities. There is a determination to do more to improve the experience of disabled tenants in the PRS but that can only happen, to the extent it is required, with the support of adequate resources. Central government should recognise that the solution to housing challenges faced by disabled people must also involve investment in increasing the supply of accessible social housing.  In terms of national policy an appreciation of this point, and a willingness to ensure that budgets are available to underpin the necessary activities, is vital.

To help ensure disabled tenants across England have access to accessible and adaptable housing, government should look to devolve powers and resource. This would provide councils with the tools to develop and implement policies specific to the housing challenges they and their constituents face and understand.

Government should also fully implement the Renters (Reform) Agenda. Bristol City Council welcomes the abolition of section 21 notices, however, more needs to be done to tackle loopholes in the Renters (Reform) Bill (RRB) which will disproportionately impact disabled tenants. For example, landlords will be able to remove tenants from a property by increasing rent to an unreasonable amount that the tenant cannot pay, as an alternative to providing an eviction notice. These loopholes must be resolved before the Bill receives Royal Assent.

As part of the bill, we welcome that all private landlords who rent out properties in England will be required to join an ombudsman scheme, which will ensure disputes are settled quickly, at a low cost, and without going to court. The new ombudsman will have powers to put things right, including compelling landlords to issue an apology, provide information, take remedial action and/or pay compensation of up to £25,000.

Local government and national government should both play a greater role in tackling discrimination faced by disabled people in relation to their housing arrangements. Research in Bristol found that disabled tenants faced a disproportionate number of evictions in the PRS with 23% of those with a disability reporting that they had been asked by a landlord to leave a property in the last five years for no given reason. This number was significantly lower for the overall population, at 13%.

Government must take action to raise the standard of service provided by poorer performing letting agents and should work closely with letting agents and LAs to ensure disabled tenants are having their needs met in the PRS. We are disappointed to see reports that the second reading of the RRB has been delayed once again, particularly considering the urgency of its content.

The benefit system must properly recognise the actual housing costs, and challenges, faced by disabled people. This would imply significant increases to benefits. Unfreezing LHA rates would be an important initial move in this direction.

September 2023