East Ayrshire Council slammed for disabled housing provision

Jun 26 2009 by Lisa Stewart, Kilmarnock Standard

EAST Ayrshire Council has been slammed in an Inclusion Scotland report investigating how they deal with housing provision for disabled people.

The report suggests the council is out of touch with the needs of disabled people. It claims the council grossly underestimated the number of disabled people living in the East Ayrshire area.

When questioned they estimated 3500 – the figure according to Inclusion Scotland is 26,451.

Donna McSwiggan from Inclusion Scotland said their figure was obtained from the Census, and is based on a definition of disability outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Donna went on to say that almost all the local authorities questioned demonstrated “a misunderstanding of terminology”.

East Ayrshire was unable to provide accurate figures for several areas of the report. They failed to give information on local unmet housing needs, and also on average waiting times for adapted housing.

They were also unable to describe ways in which disabled people were involved in gathering information on housing needs.

The council made a statement to Inclusion Scotland saying that they “will never be in a position where all needs are met.”

The report reveals that in 2007/08 alone, East Ayrshire Council spent £34,000 removing disabled adaptations from homes so that non-disabled residents could live there.

Half of all local authorities make it their policy not to remove adaptations from homes, but to endeavour to re-allocate these homes to people with similar needs.

The council’s housing chief, Chris McAleavey, said: “The report by Inclusion Scotland claims that the council held an inaccurate figure in regards to the number of disabled people in the area however the report uses figures from the last census in 2001.

“The figure supplied by the council, in response to the FOI enquiry in 2008, was a targeted figure based on housing research conducted for the council by MRUK in 2003.

“The 2003 research findings had not been updated at the time of the FOI enquiry as councils were awaiting new guidance from the Scottish government on carrying out housing needs and demand assessment.

“Our research in relation to the housing needs of disabled people and other housing groups in East Ayrshire is now being updated using that revised guidance and the results will be used to inform the council’s local housing strategy.”

He added: “We recognise that there is likely to be a significant ongoing challenge in meeting local needs as they change in future to reflect changes in the profile of our local population in East Ayrshire.

“The significant predicted growth in the number of older people living in our communities over the next few years, many of whom may well have health or mobility problems, is an example of the challenges we face.

“However, by working closely with the Scottish Government and all our partners, we will continue to make every effort to meet local housing needs, including the needs of disabled people.”

On the issue of involving disabled people when gathering information on their housing needs, Mr McAleavey said: “The council has involved and will continue to engage disabled people when gathering information on their housing needs.”

When asked by the Standard if he believed the council was providing a good service for disabled people, he replied: “Yes, on balance, I do believe the council is providing a good service to disabled people in relation to housing.

“We set aside £1m a year to spend on aids and adaptations to council housing for disabled people and financial grants are also available to assist disabled people to adapt their own properties.

“The report findings for East Ayrshire were generally positive however, we recognise that more needs to be done and we are working hard to continue to secure positive change for all of our tenants including disabled people.”