Housing minister under fire for ‘dismissing’ accessible homes target

The UK’S human rights watchdog has hit out at Scotland’s housing minister after he dismissed the idea of setting a national target for building wheelchair-accessible homes as “arbitrary”.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) spoke out after Kevin Stewart MSP rejected its call for at least 10 per cent of the nation’s new homes to be made suitable for disabled people.

Appearing in front of a Holyrood committee, he described the target – which has also been backed by disability 0 Kevin Stewart: Set targets at local authority level charities – as an “arbitrary figure plucked from the air”.

In a major report last week, the EHRC said thousands of disabled people in Scotland were being robbed of their dignity and independence due to the nation’s chronic shortage of accessible housing. It warned many are unable to leave their homes or are forced to live in a single room due to the lack of suitable housing.

The watchdog’s report called on the Scottish Government to set a national target of building at least 10 per cent of all new housing to accessible home standards.

But Mr Stewart said: “Rather than for us to set an arbitrary target at a national level, I would like local authorities to get down to the job of seeing exactly what is required in their area and build that in to their strategic housing investment plans in the future.”