Why Is Finding Accessible Housing in the UK So Difficult?

When you think of an accessible home, what comes to mind?

Perhaps a bungalow, a ramp leading to the front door or a bathroom with a level-access shower.

But what happens when a property has that lovely accessible shower, yet you can’t actually get your wheelchair through the front gate?

It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, after spending almost three years trying to find somewhere suitable to live, I’ve discovered that finding accessible housing in the UK can be an incredibly frustrating experience.

And sometimes I wonder whether the people deciding what’s accessible have ever tried to navigate these properties in a wheelchair.

When Your Home No Longer Meets Your Needs

I currently live in a bungalow, which you might assume would be ideal for someone with mobility difficulties.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

Our bathroom can only be accessed through the bedroom. To reach it, you have to squeeze through a narrow gap between the bed and wardrobe.

There’s not enough room to get my wheelchair through, but there’s also not enough room to use a walking aid.

And that’s something I really want to make clear. I don’t choose not to use my wheelchair or walking aids indoors. I physically can’t because of the layout of our home.

There are days when I absolutely should be using a mobility aid to get around, but instead, the only option is for Ash to try to support me and help me get to the bathroom.

It’s not an ideal situation for either of us, and it’s certainly not something that should be necessary just to use the toilet.

And it’s not just me who’s affected.

Ash has his own health issues, including a bad knee that he’s currently having physiotherapy for.

Yet because I can’t use the mobility aids I need, he has to try to physically support me instead.

That’s taking a toll on him too.

It’s frustrating because, in a more suitable home, I could potentially be more independent rather than having to rely on him quite so much.

Of course, he’d still help me when I needed it, but there’s a big difference between helping someone because they need support and having to provide that support because the house itself makes other options impossible.

And before anyone suggests moving the furniture around, we’ve already had someone visit who initially thought that might be the problem.

It wasn’t.

Even they were surprised by the layout and concluded there wasn’t a practical way to resolve the issues.

An occupational therapist (OT) has assessed the property and recommended that I move because it isn’t suitable for my needs.

That was coming up to three years ago.

And I’m still here.

A Bungalow Doesn’t Automatically Mean Accessible

One thing I’ve discovered is that properties can tick certain accessibility boxes without actually being practical for the person who needs to live there.

For example, a bungalow might have a level-access shower, but what about everything else?

Can you get through the front door? Are the internal doorways wide enough? Is there room to move around the bedroom or bathroom?

And, perhaps most importantly, can you actually get your wheelchair into the property in the first place?

These aren’t little details. They’re things that determine whether someone can safely live in a home.

Yet sometimes it feels as though having a level-access shower is enough for a property to be considered suitable, regardless of everything else.

I mainly use my wheelchair when I’m out, but that’s not necessarily because I don’t need it indoors.

It’s because my current home doesn’t have the space for me to use it.

The same goes for walking aids. Even when I need that extra support, the layout of our home means I can’t use them to get to the bathroom.

And I think that’s something people sometimes overlook.

Just because someone manages to walk around their home doesn’t mean they’re doing so safely or comfortably. Sometimes they’re doing it because they have absolutely no alternative.

Surely we should be looking at whether a home allows someone to use the equipment they need, rather than assuming that because they’re managing without it, everything must be fine?

Apparently You Have to Be Over 55 to Need a Bungalow

Something else I’ve found incredibly frustrating is how many bungalows advertised through social housing are restricted to people aged 55 and over.

And it’s not just rented properties. I’ve also come across shared ownership opportunities with similar age restrictions.

Now, I completely understand why single-storey housing is important for older people.

But what about those of us who become disabled before we’re 55?

Disability doesn’t suddenly appear when you reach a certain birthday.

You can need a wheelchair, struggle with stairs or require an adapted bathroom at 25, 35 or 45.

Yet when you’re searching for suitable housing, it sometimes feels as though you’re being told you’re too young to need it.

I’m not suggesting older people should lose access to suitable homes. Far from it.

But I do think there needs to be more consideration for disabled people of all ages.

After all, needing accessible housing isn’t an age-related privilege. It’s about having somewhere you can safely live.

Why Are We Still Building Inaccessible Bungalows?

This is another thing that genuinely baffles me.

I’ve seen new-build bungalows completed within the last few years, only for them to come back onto the rental market specifically labelled as not wheelchair accessible.

And I can’t help wondering why.

If we’re building a brand-new bungalow, why aren’t we thinking about accessibility from the beginning?

Wider doorways, sensible bathroom layouts, step-free entrances and enough room to manoeuvre aren’t exactly strange things to consider when designing a home.

I know there are different levels of accessibility, and not every bungalow will be suitable for every wheelchair user.

But surely we should be aiming to make new homes as accessible and adaptable as reasonably possible?

Someone who doesn’t use a wheelchair can generally live quite happily in a home with wider doorways and level access.

But someone who needs those features may be completely excluded from living in a property without them.

And when accessible housing is already in such short supply, why are we continuing to build homes that might need expensive adaptations later?

England has different accessibility standards for new homes, including M4(2) for accessible and adaptable homes and M4(3) for wheelchair-user dwellings. However, these higher standards are not universally required for every new home.

Research from Habinteg Housing Association in 2025 forecast that 41% of planned new homes in England over the following decade would meet neither of those higher standards.

That’s an awful lot of homes being planned without the accessibility features that could make them more suitable for people with changing mobility needs.

Just How Bad Is the Shortage of Accessible Housing?

Unfortunately, this isn’t just something I’ve experienced personally.

According to the Centre for Ageing Better’s Accessible Homes Factsheet 2025, only 13% of homes in England had all four basic accessibility features that would allow most people with access needs to visit them.

These include step-free access, sufficiently wide doorways and circulation space, a suitable entrance threshold and a toilet at entrance level.

And remember, these are basic features that make a home visitable.

They don’t necessarily mean someone can live there independently in a wheelchair.

The research also found that fewer than one in five homes occupied by someone who uses a wheelchair outdoors but not indoors had all four features.

That particularly stood out to me because I’m one of those people who uses a wheelchair outdoors but not indoors.

What that statistic doesn’t tell you, though, is how many people are in that position because their homes simply aren’t accessible enough to use a wheelchair inside.

So while we hear a lot about the need for more housing, I think we also need to ask whether we’re building the right homes.

Because more houses don’t automatically mean more suitable homes.

My Experience With Bromford

I also want to talk about my experiences with Bromford, the housing association I currently rent from.

For around eight years, we were repeatedly told that a ramp would be installed at our property.

We watched other homes have ramps fitted while we continued waiting, believing ours would eventually happen too.

It was only when an occupational therapist visited that the practical problems with installing a ramp were explained to us.

That’s eight years of waiting for something we’d been led to believe was coming.

And unfortunately, the difficulties haven’t ended there.

I’ve also been encouraged to bid on bungalows that I know wouldn’t meet my accessibility needs.

One recent example was a property in my preferred area that had a level-access shower.

Sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Except the entrance gate wasn’t wide enough for my wheelchair.

I explained this, along with the fact that I’d previously been told older bungalows of that design had narrow doorways that wouldn’t accommodate my chair.

Yet I was still told I should bid because it was in my preferred area and had a level-access shower.

But how does having an accessible shower help if I can’t even get through the front gate?

I’ve also received a strike against my housing application after turning down a property I was told was unsuitable.

To avoid that penalty, I was told I would still need to let the property go through a formal OT assessment, during which I wouldn’t be able to bid on other homes.

That could mean holding up a property that might have been perfectly suitable for somebody else, while also potentially missing out on another property myself.

I understand that housing associations need rules and that suitable properties shouldn’t be refused without good reason.

But surely there needs to be a better way of dealing with genuine accessibility concerns?

When someone already has an OT report recommending that they move, why should they have to risk penalties for identifying barriers that make another property unsuitable?

I don’t expect every home to be adapted for me.

I do expect accessibility concerns to be taken seriously.

The Problem With Promising Adaptations Later

Another issue I’ve encountered is the expectation that someone can move into a property and have the necessary adaptations completed afterwards.

Sometimes that might be perfectly reasonable.

A property could need a few grab rails or relatively minor changes that can safely wait.

But what happens when someone can’t get their wheelchair through the entrance?

Or when the internal doorways are too narrow?

Or when major alterations would be needed before they could use the bathroom independently?

I’ve already spent years waiting for a ramp that never materialised.

So I think it’s understandable that I’m reluctant to move somewhere else based on another promise that adaptations will happen eventually, when I’ve been there, got the t-shirt but no adaption.

And surely it makes more sense to establish whether those adaptations are actually possible before someone moves in?

Otherwise, what’s stopping someone from ending up in another unsuitable property, facing exactly the same problems all over again?

Accessible Housing Isn’t Just About the Future

Something else I think gets overlooked is that people can appear to manage in unsuitable housing simply because they have no other choice.

I mainly use my wheelchair outdoors, but as I’ve mentioned, that’s partly because I can’t use it inside my current home.

There are many days when I need more support than I can safely get from walking alone, yet the layout prevents me from using the mobility aids that would help.

Instead, Ash has to try to support me.

That’s not a long-term solution, and it’s not something I want to have to keep relying on, particularly when he has his own health problems to deal with.

So when I talk about finding somewhere that could accommodate my wheelchair indoors, I’m not just thinking about what might happen in five or ten years.

I’m thinking about the days when I could benefit from using it right now.

Of course, future-proofing still matters. My mobility can vary, and there’s no guarantee that what I can manage today will always be possible.

But I don’t think disabled people should have to wait until their mobility deteriorates further before they’re considered to need accessible housing.

I’d like somewhere that allows me to use the equipment I need, when I need it, without having to fight against the layout of the building.

Surely that shouldn’t be too much to ask?

We Need to Think Beyond the Accessibility Checklist

I don’t think every existing property can realistically be made fully wheelchair accessible.

Older buildings have limitations, and sometimes major structural changes simply aren’t practical.

But I do think we need a better understanding of what accessibility actually means.

A level-access shower is wonderful, but it doesn’t help much if someone can’t get through the bathroom door.

A bungalow might remove the problem of stairs, but that doesn’t automatically mean there’s enough room to manoeuvre a wheelchair.

And a property being in someone’s preferred area doesn’t make it suitable if they can’t safely get inside.

I’d also love to see more thought going into new-build homes from the beginning, rather than treating accessibility as something to worry about later.

Because surely it’s better to build homes that more people can use than to keep building homes that exclude people unnecessarily?

Everyone Deserves a Home That Works for Them

I don’t expect to find a perfect home.

I’m happy to compromise on plenty of things, and I understand that finding somewhere suitable can take time.

But I don’t think being able to safely enter your home, reach the bathroom and move around should be considered unreasonable expectations.

After almost three years of searching, I’d just like somewhere that meets my needs without having to fight for every little thing.

And I know I’m far from the only person in this position.

We need more accessible homes, better information about the properties already available and a housing system that recognises accessibility is about how someone can actually live in a space.

Accessible housing isn’t simply about convenience. It can help people maintain their independence, reduce avoidable reliance on others and make life safer for everyone in the household.

Most importantly, we need to stop treating accessibility as something that can simply be added later and start considering it from the very beginning.

Because a home isn’t truly accessible just because someone has ticked a box saying it is.

Have you ever struggled to find a home that meets your needs, or discovered that a property described as accessible wasn’t quite what you expected? I’d love to hear your experiences.

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