Peter Wingrave of AAT GB Ltd asks, is it time for a step change in the way we approach dealing with the crisis in our housing market?
The biggest sector of growth is that of elderly tenants. Indeed, according to the Centre for Ageing Better, over 10m people are now aged over 65. 45% of older households have a member living with a long-term illness or disability. The National Housing Federation claims that since 2010/11 the number of over 55 households in the private rented sector has grown by 70% but is still (according to the English Housing Survey) less than half the number of those in social housing.
But it is widely acknowledged that the majority of housing stock is not suitable. The usual call is to build more homes, but we all know that takes time and money, and even then will not meet the demand: with only 427 wheelchair-accessible homes being built each year.
We need to think ‘outside the box’ and adopt strategies that can go some way to make our existing properties more age-appropriate.
The Government’s paper ‘Future of an Ageing Population’ states “there is consensus that the home should enable people to maintain a good quality of life and be adaptable to suit their health and care needs. Over half of the non-specialised housing stock is estimated to require structural alterations to provide suitable access for older people, and over a quarter of inaccessible homes are not adaptable at all… The adaptability of existing stock is therefore crucial.”
If a tenant is going to be a property for five years, they can apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant to adapt the property to their needs; but when the tenant moves, how suitable will that property be for a new incumbent?
Under the Equality Act, a landlord has to make “reasonable” adjustments to accommodate a disabled person’s needs, but there is no definition of “reasonable”.
In an ideal world, should we be utilising alternative tools that optimise flexibility of the accommodation, making it potentially suitable for the widest possible number of tenants?
Adapting the barrier of stairs
One of the biggest issues facing older renters is reduced mobility. The Centre for Ageing Better cites unsafe stairs as one of the five biggest issues impacting tenants’ health & wellbeing: the stairs may not be themselves physically unsafe, it may be the mindset of the tenant that they are struggling to manage them safely with the associated fear of falling.
The English Housing Survey says that older social (41%) and private renters (23%) were more likely to live in low rise (three storeys or less) purpose built flats; for them, there is a real problem – there is no requirement to provide a lift in such low rise buildings, yet if the tenant cannot safely use the stairs, they become a prisoner in their home. Under the Housing Health & Safety Rating System, the landlord has to take necessary steps to make stairway access safe, inside and outside of the property and in common areas.
So how do landlords make those stairs accessible and safe without impinging access for the other tenants?
The answer is a stairclimber or stairclimbing wheelchair. It’s a solution already utilised by almost every local authority in the country via the social care teams.
A stairclimber is a portable unit, not fixed to the staircase in any way. It can accommodate most common staircase designs. Battery powered, it can climb and descend 300 steps from one charge so more than enough to safely function up and down several flights. It just requires another person to be to hand to operate it.
Because it is not fixed, it can be quickly re-allocated to another tenant or property when the original recipient no longer needs it, thus extending the scope of the whole property portfolio without any building works, making good etc.
It is worth noting that a stairclimber can also accommodate external steps, be it to the front, back door, into a garden area, or the wider environment. Accessibility and social cohesion are two of the most significant factors that affect how older people experience their neighbourhood.
Such equipment also enables a comfortable, safe means of evacuation, facilitating compliance with the Building Safety Act.
Further, reputable suppliers will support landlords with assessments of the tenant and care team to verify the suitability of the equipment, set it to the tenant’s requirements, train any operatives, manage the equipment, undertaking annual service & maintenance, and acting as an extension to your maintenance team in managing the removal and re-allocation. Thus, the landlord’s obligations to undertake “reasonable” adjustments for disabled tenants are met, and the doors of a property opened for an older tenant who may otherwise struggle because of steps into/out of the property, or the stairs within…
It’s a different approach, but in these current times where we have a growing older tenancy, if nothing else it answers an immediate need to reduce – or eliminate – the impact of reduced mobility on a tenant’s ability to occupy or continue to rent a particular property.
Peter Wingrave is director at AAT GB Ltd