The Government’s review of housing standards has missed a golden opportunity to ensure all new homes meet people’s current and future accessibility needs.

Our aim is simply to see an increase in the supply of accessible housing. While we strongly welcome the robust technical standards for the two new access categories (based on our Lifetime Homes Standard and Wheelchair Housing Design Guide) the proposed standards are ‘optional’ which is a highly unsatisfactory outcome for local communities everywhere. We will keep campaigning for a higher default access standard.

Councils are acutely aware of the shortage of suitable homes for disabled and older people. They are also on the frontline as the challenges of an ageing population grow each year. Housing policy, along with health and social care, must play a central part in tackling these issues.

Yet the cards that the government has dealt in this review are not kind.