Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the capacity of local councils to provide payments to successful claimants of the disabled facilities grant within legal time limit.

The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 requires local authorities to make decisions on Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) applications within six months of receipt.

When someone applies for a grant, the local council carries out an assessment of need and affordability. If these assessments are passed the council instructs a trusted contractor to install the home adaptations that the applicant requires.

Local authorities provide MHCLG with annual data returns on DFG delivery, including information on the average number of days between a DFG application being received by the council and completion of the works.

For 2018-19 and 2019-20 the average number of days between DFG applications and completion of the works was 115 days, or between 3 and 4 months.