5 | Building new accessible homes 5.1 Background: planning policy As detailed in Chapter 4, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that new housing delivery in their area is broadly in line with the area’s needs, including the needs of disabled people, and are expected to assess this using housing market assessments as an evidence base to back up their requirements. authorities can use this assessment as backing for planning policy, giving them the ability to veto developments that do not, for example, meet a certain percentage target for accessible or adaptable housing (in excess of the mandatory minimum level of accessibility set down in Building Regulations or Building Standards, which must be achieved by all new dwellings). The mandatory minimum varies across Britain and is laid down in rules set by national or devolved government. In England and Wales, Part M of the Building Regulations lays out a mandatory standard for accessibility of housing (called M4(1) in England), referred to as housing. This requires that the building is ‘visitable’ accessible by a disabled person capable of walking; it would not usually be described as housing. However, the mandatory standard laid down in ‘accessible’ Sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the Building Standards in Scotland is much higher, for example requiring wheelchair access to the ground floor of all new housing. a local authority wants to require developers to build housing which is more accessible than the mandatory minimum, this must be done by incorporating their housing market assessment’s findings into a local planning document (as detailed in the Glossary). The survey contained a number of questions for local authorities exploring the extent to which they are able to shepherd requirements for accessible or adaptable housing through this process. Once this is done, local authorities can require developers to supply accessible housing in line with their target, subject to an assessment of viability. They may, however, choose instead to negotiate site-by-site with no fixed target.
5 | Building new accessible homes 5.1 Background: planning policy As detailed in Chapter 4, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that new housing delivery in their area is broadly in line with the area’s needs, including the needs of disabled people, and are expected to assess this using housing market assessments as an evidence base to back up their requirements. authorities can use this assessment as backing for planning policy, giving them the ability to veto developments that do not, for example, meet a certain percentage target for accessible or adaptable housing (in excess of the mandatory minimum level of accessibility set down in Building Regulations or Building Standards, which must be achieved by all new dwellings). The mandatory minimum varies across Britain and is laid down in rules set by national or devolved government. In England and Wales, Part M of the Building Regulations lays out a mandatory standard for accessibility of housing (called M4(1) in England), referred to as ‘visitable’ housing. This requires that the building is accessible by a disabled person capable of walking; it would not usually be described as ‘accessible’ housing. However, the mandatory standard laid down in Sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the Building Standards in Scotland is much higher, for example requiring wheelchair access to the ground floor of all new housing. a local authority wants to require developers to build housing which is more accessible than the mandatory minimum, this must be done by incorporating their housing market assessment’s findings into a local planning document (as detailed in the Glossary). The survey contained a number of questions for local authorities exploring the extent to which they are able to shepherd requirements for accessible or adaptable housing through this process. Once this is done, local authorities can require developers to supply accessible housing in line with their target, subject to an assessment of viability. They may, however, choose instead to negotiate site-by-site with no fixed target.
research-report-115-housing-and-disabled-people-the-role-of-local-authorities-accessible.docx