English Housing Survey 2018-19: Accessibility of English homes

This new MHCLG factsheet and infographic specifies that an accessible home is one with the four main criteria that make it visitable for most people, including wheelchair users: level access to the main entrance, a flush threshold, sufficiently wide doorways and circulation space, and a toilet at entrance level.

It also displays useful facts and figures displayed in a series of infographics that illustrate the state of accessibility and adaptability of residential properties in England and how they meet the criteria. For example, in 2018, 2.3 million English homes had at least one adaptation for a person with a disability.

Other key statistics show that:

• 9% of homes have accessibility features to deem them ‘visitable’ - up from 5% in 2005;
• over 400,00 wheelchair users living in homes neither adapted nor accessible;
• 57% of wheelchair users living in adapted homes
• the social rented sector contained the highest proportion of accessibly built homes and where there have been adaptations, and
• the number of wheelchair users that live in accessible and adapted homes has grown over the last ten years to 2018