AQW 2849/16-21

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 12/09/2016
Answered On Date: 28/09/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities for his assessment of the current provision of one-bedroom, wheelchair-accessible residential accommodation in South Belfast.

Answer:

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, is currently undertaking a rolling programme to classify wheelchair accessibility of their housing stock to produce an Accessible Housing Register for Northern Ireland.

The Housing Executive has 336 one bedroom properties located in South Belfast, only one of which is classified as fully wheelchair accessible.

For the stock in Housing Association ownership a direct geographical comparison is not possible. However, of the one bedroom properties in areas within postcodes BT7 and BT9 considered to be located in South Belfast, 51 are fully wheelchair accessible and 24 are partially wheelchair accessible.

Work to complete the Accessible Housing Register is ongoing. Therefore, the data available at present on wheelchair accessible properties is limited to those properties that have been classified to date and does not include the remaining stock still to be classified.

My Department has been working with the Housing Executive and Housing Associations to put the necessary tools in place to enable more wheelchair standard accommodation to be built where the need exists. It is the intention that housing associations will include more wheelchair standard accommodation in their future new build plans. New wheelchair design standards have been introduced from 2016/17 and will be fully integrated into the 2017/18 Social Housing Development Programme.