Mark Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Williams on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the demand for (a) homes built to lifetime home standards and (b) wheelchair accessible homes.

Stephen Williams

The Department for Communities and Local Government, does not hold information on the overall demand for lifetime homes or wheelchair-accessible properties in the UK.

While the Department’s English Housing Survey does ask respondents whether their current accommodation requires adaptations given their disability or long standing illness, these questions do not ask specifically about wheelchair accessibility. It is therefore not possible to estimate demand for wheelchair accessible properties in England using this data source.

Estimates using the English Housing Survey show there to be around 1.1 million wheelchair-accessible homes in England, equating to 5 per cent of the dwelling stock. Data reported by social landlords, in England, shows that around 1 per cent (2,700 of 240,000 general needs lettings) of tenants taking up a social letting in 2011/12 identified their household as needing wheelchair accessible housing (source: The Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales of Social Housing in England).