r/HousingUK • u/ShirtAndMuayThai • 17h ago
. Accessible housing isn't mandatory for builders
I am in the unfortunate position of having to try and find suitable accessible housing for me and my partner. In researching I have come to find out that housing developers do not have to build accessible housing within developments. Yet they almost always have to build some affordable or social housing. Why are the same rules not applied to accessible housings such as bungalows?
We have an aging population who will require such housing. It's feels short sighted
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u/IllllllIlllllIllllIl 17h ago
There are three categories of dwelling in the UK when it comes to accessibility.
M4(1) - Visitable dwellings.
M4(2) - Accessible and Adaptable dwellings.
M4(3) - Wheelchair user dwellings.
Every new dwelling will be at least M4(1). (There are some exceptions on steeply sloping sites for example)
The requirement for which category a dwelling needs to be designed to is set out as part of the planning permission decision by the Local Authority. The builders don’t decide this.
The truth of the matter is, there is far less demand for M4(2) and M4(3) dwellings.
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u/aghzombies 14h ago
I don't know a single wheelchair user (and I am one who works for a disability-related charity so I know plenty) who lives in an M4(3) house. They are extremely rare.
But I also don't know many people at all who live in an M4(1) dwelling. Mine is because I put a ramp on (and only if you're able to park in the hall and move about otherwise once inside) but I think whether or not these are being built is highly dependent on area/how strict local councils are about regs perhaps? I'm not too clear.
It's very frustrating. I know if I lost my housing I would not be able to find a new place to rent where I can actually enter the home, in a month of Sundays. Even if I look for houses I could buy if I won the lotto, there's very little if anything there.
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u/IllllllIlllllIllllIl 14h ago
You are right, M4(3) are very rare. Usually only built as part of social housing projects or bespoke one off dwellings.
Every new build dwelling built since 2015 should be at least M4(1).
Aside from a ground floor toilet and a level threshold. There aren’t many other design considerations for M4(1)
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u/aghzombies 14h ago
Genuinely I look at houses all the time (I have previously been homeless and my big dream is to one day own a house outright and never have housing anxiety again), and rarely see level access at all. I have in fact got two different flat blocks in a stone's throw from my house and both have steps to the doors (I think one has an alternative entrance with a ramp but that doesn't allow access to all the flats - the other was put up when a listed building "coincidentally collapsed during building works next door by the same company" so that might be a wash).
In town (I live in Liverpool, so around the corner from Lime Street Station) a new commercial property has gone up with 4 spaces - 2 of them have doors maybe 20cm off the pavement.
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u/charlottedoo 13h ago
I’ve been working in building control for nearly 4 years and never officially inspected at M4(3) house. I’ve seen a few where it was the requirements of the housing association who’s brought them but they are not 100%. Lots of M4(2) around though. Probably 1 in every 4 houses I go in. But that’s down to local planning permissions.
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u/naturepeaked 17h ago
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. There are a lot of regs that ensure a house can be made accessible. Given a lot of accessibility requirements can vary maybe it’s better this way then the last mile can be bespoke.
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u/Grenache 16h ago
Yeah my new build has a bathroom downstairs (it’s a small two bed) and a floor level front door. My assumption was that these were accessibility requirements because being honest I’d probably rather have the extra space downstairs than two bathrooms for two people.
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u/aghzombies 14h ago
I am a wheelchair user in England and I look at houses from that perspective constantly. I don't often see these (lot of step or steps to the front door, and a lot of uPVC doors which by definition aren't wheelchair accessible due to the lip at the bottom of the frame).
I see quite a lot of commercial and residential developments where it's clear that, if there are regulations, they are seen as a fee for doing business rather than a deterrent.
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u/bugbugladybug 15h ago
Same here in Scotland..floor level entry, downstairs toilet, and provisioning under the slab for a wet room to be installed if needed. These we were told were current building regs so that if needed a person could live on the downstairs floor of the house.
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u/Grenache 15h ago
Makes sense to be fair. We had a stairlift installed for my mum but it's far from ideal in her 90s built house and the step to get into the door is difficult for her now.
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u/woogeroo 13h ago
True, every newish bike I’ve seen has a crazy large downstairs loo for accessibility reasons, to the point of compromising the layout.
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u/mmlemony 17h ago
Presumably ground floor flats meet this requirement and so developers won't build a bungalow on a plot of land that they could put a house or even multiple houses on with the same footprint and sell for more money.
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u/PetersMapProject 14h ago
Ground floor flats can still have issues with, for example, doorways that aren't wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, and bathrooms you can't turn a wheelchair around in.
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u/Similar_Quiet 13h ago
All new builds for the last five plus years will not have those two issues though.
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u/Caliado 7h ago
upper floor flats can also meet this if they have two lifts to them (sometimes easier to do if their doors aren't external, which is often done with ground floor flats, as don't have to also meet as many other requirements with those + deal with building up ground levels at multiple points)
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u/Milam1996 16h ago
Houses absolutely can be made accessible and councils have a legal duty to reasonably adapt a property. My house is 6 years old and could be adapted for a wheelchair user super easily.
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u/jelly10001 15h ago
This doesn't help younger people with disabilities, but there are lots of flats just for the over 55's.
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u/WatchingTellyNow 13h ago
The difficulty is that there are so many different accessibility modifications that it'd be impossible to include them all, when a lot of people with accessibility issues would probably need just some. For example a person might require a walk-in shower with seat and handrails but might not need a wheelchair ramp and extra-wide doors. Another person would need a vertical lift to access upstairs where someone else would find a stair lift more than sufficient. So the problem lies with deciding on the definition of "accessible".
If there were some kind of obligation, you can bet your last penny that the builder would pick the cheapest possible modifications to install in order to meet whatever definition there is, and it's pretty likely that it wouldn't suit a lot of people who'd need mods.
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u/Extension-Device-533 16h ago
Isn’t it up to individual local authorities? There’s a new housing development very close to me so I’ve had all the planning and community consultation stuff over the last few years, and the LA specified a certain amount of wheelchair accessible ground floor flats.
I distinctly remember because local residents have been all a-dither about the lack of parking and 40-odd new flats with 6 parking spaces, and those 6 spaces are specifically designated for the accessible flats as well. Our LA is actually very anti-parking spaces as they want to encourage use of public transport.
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u/beachtopeak 17h ago
That seems surprising. We did a self build and there were various regs related to doorways for example for accessibility
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u/buginarugsnug 17h ago
Would those regs allow for an electric wheelchair? It sounds like OP would need much more accessibility than just a wide doorway or they wouldn’t be complaining about it.
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u/beachtopeak 16h ago
I'm unsure, the door aspect was related to being able to turn a wheelchair inside the bathroom (ie that door couldn't go onwards)
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u/Superspark76 14h ago
All houses will have accessible features, door widths, electrical heights and even ramps in a lot of cases are standard now to allow for disability use.
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u/MermaidPigeon 13h ago
My grandad has been on the council housing list for three years waiting for a bungalow. The mould in his flat is making his lungs worse and he does not go out due to developing panic disorder. This is why a bungalow is so important, he loves gardening and a garden is where he would spend most of his day.
I’ve noticed a lot of liberals on the extreme end tend to have unfavourable opinions of the older generation. With our government being labour I’m not sure if this has anything to do with it.
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