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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help increase the (a) number and (b) proportion of social houses built with adaptations for people with disabilities.

Following our consultation on options to raise the accessibility of new homes, we published a government response on 29th July 2022, setting out our plans to mandate the current optional and higher M4(2) requirement in Building Regulations as a minimum standard for all new homes, including new social homes. Government will consult further on the technical changes to the Building Regulations to mandate the higher M4(2) accessibility standard.

Additionally, since 2010 Government has invested £4.8 billion into the Disabled Facilities Grant (2010-11 to 2022-23), delivering an estimated 490,000 home adaptations.

The DFG is tenure neutral, so irrespective of the type of property in which a person lives, eligible disabled people should be able to receive the home adaptations that they need subject to a means test and assessment of need.

The £11.5 billion Affordable Homes programme (2021-26) (England) also includes delivery within the programme of new supply of specialist supported housing, including for people with disabilities, alongside investment through DHSC’s Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund (England).