The human version (we wrote this, not the council)
This policy requires accessible homes on sites of 10 or more dwellings. On these sites, 25% of all homes must meet the Building Regulations M4(2) standard for accessible and adaptable dwellings, and a further 5% must meet the M4(3) wheelchair user standard, including 7% of affordable homes. Compliance should be shown in the Design and Access Statement. Figures are rounded down to the nearest home, so schemes below 20 homes will not need to provide M4(3) wheelchair-accessible dwellings.
An unofficial plain English summary. The official wording below is
what counts at examination; check it before you rely on anything here.
The text below is extracted automatically from the official PDF and may
contain artefacts; the PDF is authoritative.
HO4: Accessible housing
1. To create accessible homes, sites of 10 or more homes will provide:
a) 25% of all homes must meet the Building Regulations requirement M4 (2) ‘accessible and adaptable dwellings’; and
b) Additionally, 5% of all homes must meet Building Regulations requirement M4 (3) ‘wheelchair user dwellings’ to be wheelchair accessible, including 7% of affordable homes.
2. Compliance with the criteria should be demonstrated in the Design and Access Statement submitted with the planning application.
7.28 An accessible home supports changing needs of residents from raising children through to mobility issues faced in old age or through disability. This allows people to live in their home for as much of their lives as possible. Such homes have design features that have been tailored to foster accessible living, helping to accommodate old age, injury, disability, pregnancy and pushchairs or enable future adaptation to accommodate this diversity of use. Interpretation of the threshold will be implemented by rounding the 25% (or 5% and 7%) of homes to the nearest home, rounded down. For example, a scheme of ten homes will provide two homes to M4 (2) standard and none to M4 (3) standard. No schemes below 20 homes will provide homes to meet the M4 (3) standard.
7.29 The standards for housing to meet Building Regulations requirement M4 (2) and M4 (3) relate to the layout of self-contained homes for permanent occupancy. Meeting Building Regulations requirement M4 (2) and M4 (3) will normally be controlled using a planning condition, to ensure that the relevant homes are delivered to meet the standards. The Council can accept minor variations to the standards under exceptional circumstances. The National Planning Practice Guidance3 states that local plan policies for wheelchair accessible homes should only be applied to those dwellings where the local authority is responsible for allocating or nominating a person to live in that dwelling. In the interest of mixed and balanced communities, the Council would also encourage developers to build wheelchair accessible market homes. 3 Paragraph: 009 Reference ID: 56-009-20150327