The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
Today the Department for Communities and Local Government is announcing the local authority allocations for the disabled facilities grant programme in England, making available £180 million, an increase of 11 million the amount allocated for 2010-11. Local authorities are being informed of their individual allocations. Details of the amount awarded to each authority will be available on the Department for Communities and Local Government website and a table detailing the funds provided to individual authorities has been placed in the Library of the House.
The disabled facilities grant programme has been protected within the spending review. The programme helps disabled people to live as comfortably and independently as possible in their own homes through the provision of adaptations. Entitlement to a disabled facilities grant is mandatory for eligible disabled people and the grant provides financial assistance for the provision of a wide-range of housing adaptations ranging from stair lifts and level access showers to home extensions. The programme is therefore key in delivering the Government’s objective of providing increased levels of care and support to people in their own homes.
The Department for Communities and Local Government wrote to all local authorities in January 2011 to announce a small change to the allocation methodology for the disabled facilities grant for the financial year 2011-12. In 2011-12 there is £180 million available to be distributed as disabled facilities grant to local authorities—an extra £11 million more than was available in 2010-11. All local authorities will, as a minimum, receive what they were allocated in 2010-11. The extra £11 million will then be shared between the local authorities using a relative needs weighted index.
The disabled facilities grant programme has improved the lives of many disabled people including disabled children and helped them avoid the need to leave family homes for specialist housing alternatives.