Private Rented Housing: Disability
Communities and Local Government
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to ensure that properties available on the private rental market are accessible to people with disabilities.
Andrew Stunell (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
The Department for Communities and Local Government provides funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant to all 326 local authorities in England for the provision of adaptations to homes to allow disabled people to live independently in their own homes. The grant is available to home owners and tenants alike. In 2012-13 the Disabled Facilities Grant funding is £180 million and over the spending review period to 2014-15 DCLG has safeguarded £745 million for the grant.
Part M (access to and use of buildings) of the Building Regulations sets out baseline requirements for access in all new housing and in cases where existing properties are subject to a material change of use to provide homes for sale or rental.