Forecast for accessible homes 2025: One decade on, millstone or milestone?

To coincide with Accessible Homes Week, Habinteg Housing Association has released an insight report that provides a forecast for accessible homes and makes the link to accessible housing in local plans.

Reflecting on the 10 years since the introduction of two optional accessible housing design standards to Part M of the English Building Regulations, Habinteg set out to track the use of these optional standards in English local plans. Analysing the use of the optional standards in 311 plans, they have estimated the maximum possible impact on future delivery of new accessible homes over the next decade. Their findings reveal stark regional disparities in planning for new wheelchair accessible homes, which will put wheelchair user home-seekers at the mercy of a severe postcode lottery.

The report also shares lived experience stories showing how the availability of the right type of accessible housing, in the right places, affects the day to day lives and wellbeing of disabled people up and down the country. Finding a place to live that offers the accessibility, safety and independence that disabled people need can be an impossible task. Accessible housing choices are far fewer than the inaccessible options available to non-disabled people.