Mr. Rodd Bond:

I agree with the need to focus on making the home adaptation programme more universal and inclusive. The challenge will be in the fact that there will be greater demand for a resource that will not be able to grow at the rate of that demand, so we need to address it. If our mainstream housing stock is better positioned, our adaptation need could be reduced and we may be able to get more value for the adaptation grant by spreading it out a bit more.

We need greater awareness. Many of our adaptations come at a point of crisis when we realise there is pressure. Perhaps we could raise awareness of future planning needs by making certain adaptations to homes in a better way. In Germany, low-interest loans are made available to people to reduce the burden on the home adaptation grant and make it more tightly focused on where it needs to be.