Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of accessible homes built for (a) older and (b) disabled people.
The Government is committed to helping older and disabled people to live independently and safely at home. My Department, along with the Department for Health and Social Care, grant funds to deliver new supply of supported and specialised housing for disabled, older and other vulnerable people. Since 2011, we have delivered over 34,000 units of specialist and other supported housing for disabled, older and other vulnerable people.
In addition, we have invested more than £2.7 billion into the Disabled Facilities Grant (2012-13 to 2019-20), providing around 280,000 home adaptations by the end of 2018-19.
The Government is considering proposals made by the Building Regulations Advisory Committee for a review of Part M of Building Regulations including proposals relating to the provision of accessible housing for older and disabled people. We will shortly publish planning guidance to help local authorities put accessible housing policies in place.
We have also revised the National Planning Policy Framework so that local planning authorities are expected to have specific policies that consider the housing needs of older and disabled people.