Why aren’t new homes fully accessible for older and disabled people?

Why aren’t new homes fully accessible for older and disabled people? | David Brindle Cuts to planning services have helped ensure that only 7% of England’s housing stock is even ‘visitable’ by a disabled person

Six years ago a House of Lords inquiry concluded that the UK government and society were “woefully under-prepared” for the needs of the ageing population. It was meant to be a wake-up call, a prompt for action, but new evidence shows that we continue to drift negligently on the crucial issue of housing.

If older people are going to live longer in their own homes, avoiding costly residential care, those homes must be suitable for the limitations of later life or capable of easy adaptation. Yet just 7% of England’s housing stock provides even the most basic features of accessibility, making a property “visitable” by a disabled person in the official jargon. The Guardian