Topic: Disabled people’s housing rights

At this meeting we discussed Disabled people’s right to an accessible home. We looked at:

• Local authorities’ duties to provide accommodation under the Housing Act 1996 and the Care Act 2014 and how those duties can be used to secure an accessible home.
• The legal framework related to improving the accessibility of the existing homes, including the Disabled Facilities Grants, adaptations under the Care Act, Duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

We looked at the most common problems Disabled people experience when trying to secure accommodation or adapt their existing homes and discussed whether and how we can use the law to resolve those problems.

Resources from the meeting:

• Presentation by Catherine Rayner (barrister at Seven Bedford Row and a chair of the Discrimination Law Association)
• Presentation by Diane Astin (solicitor at Deighton Pierce Glynn. Diane is also an author of Legal Action Group’s Housing Law Handbook)
• DDPO Housing and Allocations notes – 11 Sep 2017
• Transcript from the meeting