Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the responsiveness of social landlords to reasonable adjustment requests from disabled tenants.

This Government is clear that all residents deserve to receive high-quality services and are treated with dignity and respect by social housing staff.

Landlords are required to make reasonable adjustments for tenants who meet the Equality Act’s definition of disability. The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires registered providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect and to demonstrate they understand the different needs of their tenants. Landlords must pay due regard to tenants’ needs in the way they provide services, including in relation to the equality strands and additional support needs.

By law local authorities must give those who need to move for medical and welfare reasons priority for an allocation of social housing. In 2020/21, a fifth (20%) of new social housing lettings were to households with specific disability-related housing needs (such as wheelchair access, mobility aids, or adaptations relating to visual/hearing impairment), an increase of 2% from 2019/20.

The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), administered by local housing authorities, can help fund home adaptations for eligible older and disabled tenants. DLUHC funds a National Body for Home Improvement Agencies, which provides information and advice on DFG applications.