Your daily frequent11y newsletter, brought to you by @ChrisBAshton. This is a longer summary than usual but I wanted to do the article justice.

Renting while disabled: ‘Being in a wheelchair means I pay double the rent’

• 93% of the UK’s 8.5 million rental properties are inaccessible. It’s up to local authorities to set and enforce accessibility targets, but just 5% are requiring developers to construct wheelchair-suitable housing.
• Finding an accessible home is difficult as property websites lack accessibility filters, and estate agents are often useless. Habinteg Housing Association are hoping to launch an ‘online accessible property directory’, but it’s unclear from the article what scope it will have. There’s certainly a business opportunity here for someone to build the Rightmove of accessible housing.
• The Equality Act 2010 gives wheelchair users the right to make adaptations to their rented homes, but changes must be ‘reasonable’ (giving room to landlords to say no) and they must intend to live in the property for at least 5 years, making this unviable for many young renters.
• These adaptations cost on average £9,000, with a means-tested Disabled Facilities Grant covering only some of that cost. Life costs £583 per month more on average if you are disabled.

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