Background

The Levelling up, Housing and Communities committee held an enquiry into housing for Disabled people, which reported in May 2024. It found that: “...too often too many disabled people are failed by the Government’s current housing policy. It is intolerable that many disabled people are living in unsuitable accommodation for years without hope”.

The scale of the problem has been highlighted in numerous studies. Almost a quarter of all Disabled people in the UK live in social housing, compared to 7.9% of non-disabled people. And 1 in 5 Disabled people in social housing live in unsuitable accommodation.

The committee’s report makes several recommendations to Government to improve Disabled people’s access to housing, which we welcome. These include requiring local authorities to consider the needs of Disabled people and assess local need when planning for housing in local plans and increasing the upper limit of £30,000 for Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs). But it said: “ultimately, the key to tackling England’s housing crisis is to build more homes – including 90,000 social rent homes per year, and more accessible homes”.

Complaints to us

We do not record which of our complaints are from Disabled people. But in the three main housing areas covered in this report, we have seen significant increases in the last three years.

In 2022/23, we received 1,376 complaints about homelessness, housing allocations, and Disabled Facilities Grants. By 2024/25, we received 2,475 complaints. This is a growth of 80%.

In 2022/23, we investigated 418 cases and upheld 331 (79%) of them. By 2024/25, we investigated 533 cases and upheld 460 (86%) of them.