Making housing easier to build should help more people find a home they can afford and use. For disabled people, this requires accessibility to be included in decisions about planning, construction, renovation and investment.
In its response to the European Commission’s call for evidence on the Housing Simplification Package, ENIL supports efforts to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy while calling for stronger accessibility safeguards. Faster procedures must help deliver homes where disabled people can live with choice and control.
Accessibility is an essential part of housing policy
Lengthy administrative procedures can delay housing projects, increase costs and slow responses to the housing crisis. Simplifying them can bring benefits. However, ENIL is concerned that changes to planning and permitting could weaken accessibility requirements or make them easier to overlook.
The response cites an estimate that 70–80% of existing housing is unsuitable for Independent Living for people with mobility impairments. This illustrates why increasing the number of homes alone cannot resolve housing exclusion. The homes available must also meet the needs of the people seeking to live in them.
ENIL’s Independent Living Survey 2024 similarly identifies accessible and affordable housing as a key condition for living independently in the community. Accessibility requirements are therefore an essential part of addressing the housing crisis and should be protected throughout any simplification process.
Plan accessibility from the beginning
Decisions made when a home is designed or renovated can affect who is able to live there for decades. If accessibility is overlooked, residents may later face expensive adaptations or find that their home cannot meet their needs.
ENIL calls for Universal Design to become a standard approach to housing development. This means designing homes to be usable by people with a wide range of needs from the outset, while allowing for adaptations as those needs change.
Renovation offers an important opportunity to improve accessibility. Considering it after the main decisions have been made can create technical and financial barriers. Planning and funding accessibility from the beginning makes it easier to include it effectively.
This is also a question of how public money is spent. Investment in housing should deliver homes that remain useful to the population over time. Building homes that exclude people or require avoidable alterations later risks wasting that investment.
Prepare housing for changing needs
Accessible housing matters throughout people’s lives. Europe’s ageing population will increase demand for homes that accommodate changes in mobility and support requirements.
The response cites European Commission projections that around 30% of the EU population will be aged 65 or over by 2050. Planning accessible and adaptable housing now can help people continue living in their communities as their needs change.
Although building rules differ between EU countries, ENIL argues that European initiatives should promote consistent and ambitious accessibility objectives, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Administrative simplification should support those objectives.
Combine housing with the support people need
Inaccessible and unaffordable housing can prevent disabled people from living independently, contribute to homelessness and make it harder to leave institutions. A lack of community-based support can further restrict people’s options.
ENIL therefore advocates a “Housing and Support First” approach. This combines access to permanent, accessible and affordable housing with personalised support in the community.
For people who need assistance in daily life, access to a home must be accompanied by support that makes living there possible. Housing policies and investment programmes should address these needs together, helping prevent homelessness, institutionalisation and a return to institutional settings.
The aim is to create the conditions for disabled people to live in the community with dignity, choice and control.
What ENIL is calling for
ENIL’s response asks the Housing Simplification Package to:
- Strengthen accessibility standards in new construction and renovation.
- Ensure simplified planning and permitting procedures do not allow accessibility requirements to be bypassed.
- Promote Universal Design as a standard part of housing development.
- Direct EU and national investment towards accessible and affordable housing.
- Support deinstitutionalisation and prevent re-institutionalisation.
- Involve disabled people and their representative organisations in developing measures that affect housing accessibility.
These recommendations provide a practical basis for assessing the package as it develops. Policymakers should examine whether proposed changes protect accessibility throughout the building process, whether investment reaches housing that disabled people can use, and whether disabled people have a meaningful role in shaping the measures.
The Housing Simplification Package is an opportunity to remove administrative barriers while strengthening the conditions for Independent Living. Its success should be measured by whether it helps deliver homes that people can access, afford and make their own.
Read ENIL’s full response here.
