Accessible housing: The UK’s hidden housing crisis With a growing population, higher life expectancy rates and improved healthcare resources, demand continues to outstrip the current housing stock. Yet as Amy FrancisSmith argues, beneath the surface lies another type of housing crisis.
Housing is seen as one of the ultimate consumer investments and ownership acts as a status symbol, though for the average person the idea of owning can seem like a distant dream. Decades of underfunding by local authorities, and short-sighted governmental policies have led to the desolation of a once buoyant council housing stock, resulting in an almost total reliance on private developers to build the nation’s homes. Within the housing market itself there is a largely silent battle; the need for accessible disabled housing is at an even greater crisis point. There are 13.9 million disabled people in the UK, meaning that one in five are part of the largest minority group in the country. 1.8 million people are in need of accessible housing and yet only 7 per
cent of homes in England have even the most basic accessible features, such as a level threshold, wider doorways and a downstairs toilet. Of the roughly 27.2 million homes in UK, studies indicate 16 per cent would need major structural alteration to become fully accessible and in 28 per cent of homes, the alteration would not be feasible. Due to the lack of provisions, hundreds of thousands of people every year will have to move house, spend thousands adapting their property to gain some dignity and freedom or risk becoming trapped in their own home; losing independence and autonomy over their own lives. Disabled people are often left to the mercy of social housing to provide them with a safe and accessible space to live. Many tend to be in the The new Kigali | Accessible housing 35