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 ensure that all elderly people live in decent and accessible homes.

Everyone deserves a decent and safe place to live, and Government is committed to helping older and disabled people to live independently and safely. Over 516,000 local authority homes have been brought up to the Decent Homes Standard since 2010. The Social Housing Green Paper asked whether there are any changes to what constitutes a Decent Home and we are currently considering responses to the consultation. In the National Planning Policy Framework, we have strengthened the policy approach to accessible housing by setting out an expectation that planning policies for housing should make use of the Government’s optional technical standards for accessible and adaptable housing. Additionally, on 25 June the Prime Minister announced that Government will consult on mandating higher accessibility standards for new housing. Through the Disabled Facilities Grant Government also funds the provision of home adaptations to help enable eligible people of all ages to live independently and safely at home. Government has invested more than £2.7 billion into the grant (2012-13 to 2019-20), providing around 280,000 adaptations by the end of 2018-19.