Housing policies announced by the Labour government in its first year in power will have a “quite negligible” impact on improving accessibility and addressing disabled people’s housing needs, a disability rights campaigner has told MPs.
Mikey Erhardt (pictured), policy lead for Disability Rights UK (DR UK), told the Commons housing, communities and local government committee on Tuesday that there was “not a lot at the moment, I’d say, for us to be excited or hopeful for” when it came to government action on disabled people’s housing needs.
He said disabled people were still waiting for the new government to say whether it would introduce stricter minimum accessibility standards for new-build homes in England, three years after a pledge by the last Conservative government – which was never fulfilled – to take action to address the critical shortage of accessible homes.
And he pointed out that Rushanara Ali’s resignation last month meant the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had lost its lead disability minister.
He said this meant there was now a “position of flux” when disabled people already had “low expectations”.
He also highlighted last year’s criticism when the new Labour government failed to mention the accessible housing crisis in its consultation on reforms to the National Policy Planning Framework in England, and how it was then criticised for a “slapdash and chaotic” approach to a request for the consultation document to be made available in accessible formats.
He said there was “not a lot at the moment, I’d say, for us to be excited or hopeful for, but there is an understanding that this is a serious issue and an understanding that this isn’t just something that affects your house, it affects your wider life and your health”.
But he told the committee that affordability could be the biggest issue for disabled people.
He said: “When we’re thinking about what do disabled people want and need out of housing in the UK at the moment, the thing that I get told most is, ‘I’d like to be able to afford it.’
“Disabled people, people on lower incomes, cannot afford where rent has been for years, let alone where rent is predicted to go.”
He warned that the government’s house-building plans were not likely to make housing more affordable for disabled people.
He told the committee: “We just will have lots more homes that people can’t afford to live in.”
He said later in the session: “We see people every day who are not even thinking about the fact that their home is inaccessible.
“They’re thinking they can’t afford to live in it and they’re going to be made street homeless tomorrow.”
But he also pointed to the government’s renters’ rights bill, which is going through its final parliamentary stages this week, and which he said should give more “power” and protection to disabled renters who need adaptations made to their home through a disabled facilities grant.
Erhardt also pointed to a report published earlier this year by Medact, a charity which enables health professionals to speak out on the causes of poor health, and the Nags Head Tenants Association, with support from DR UK.
The report looked at tenants’ experiences of unhealthy homes on the East London estate, run by Peabody housing association.
It found that 86 per cent of households had reported new symptoms or injuries since moving into their properties.
But when they complained about problems of mould, they were told it was their fault or the issue was not serious enough.
Tenants in one property had just let the mould take over a whole room so they could force Peabody to act.
A surveyor later found that in most of the homes on the estate the ventilators “had all been painted shut years ago”.
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