Disabled Facilities Grant and Housing Assistance Policy

Buckinghamshire Council is responsible for deciding how to spend the Disabled Facilities Grant funding. This can be in one of three ways:

• approving mandatory Disabled Facilities Grants in accordance with the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
• providing housing assistance in accordance with a locally published Housing Assistance Policy under Article 3 of the Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) Order 2002
• using a portion of the DFG funding for other social care capital projects where these are agreed within an approved Better Care Funding spending plan.

The Census 2021 has shown the following population and economic trends in Buckinghamshire over the 2011 to 2021 period:

• The population of Buckinghamshire grew by 10% between 2011 (505,283) and 2021 (553,078).
• The number of households in Buckinghamshire also grew by 10% between 2011 and 2021 (from 200,727 to 220,329).
• The number of homes in Buckinghamshire grew from 208,334 in 2011 to 226,612 (including empty homes) in 2021, a 9% increase.
• The number of residents aged 50 and over has increased from 36% of the population in 2011 to 39% of the population in 2021.
• The most frequent types of household in Buckinghamshire are: a household headed by a couple who have dependent children (20%), a household consisting of a single person aged under 66 (14%) and a household consisting of a single person aged 66 and over (12%).
• Managers, directors, senior officials and those in professional occupations made up 41% of the economically active population in 2021, an increase from 35% in 2011. However, 25% of the economically active population were employed in the lower paid sectors of care, leisure, sales and customer services, machine operatives and unskilled occupations.

The population of Buckinghamshire has become substantially more ethnically diverse between 2011 and 2021 with the percentage of ‘white British’ decreasing from 81.1% to 72.0% over that time period (Source: Buckinghamshire Housing Strategy).

Buckinghamshire has higher life expectancy than the England average (81.8 years for men and 85.1 years for women). Rates of smoking, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and alcohol misuse are lower than the England average. Despite this, there are existing health inequalities between people living in the most and least deprived areas in Buckinghamshire. For men, there is a 10.3 year gap in healthy life expectancy and for women, a 11.6-year gap in healthy life expectancy between people living in areas of highest and lowest deprivation respectively (Source: Buckinghamshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment).

In the next 20 years, the total population is projected to increase by 5% (26,132), with a greater increase in the older population than the younger population (Source: Healthy Ageing Strategy 2024).

A Healthy Ageing survey undertaken in 2024 identified accessibility of housing and independence at home as two of the most important factors for older people considering future housing.

The Council’s Corporate Plan 2020 -2025 identifies key objectives of improving residents’ health and wellbeing, and enabling older, disabled and vulnerable residents to receive support to stay safe and independent in their own homes for as long as possible.

These objectives are reflected in the Council’s Housing Strategy 2024 – 2029 which contains three priorities:

1. Responding to the needs of our diverse population
2. Better homes: good quality, sustainable and matched to residents’ needs
3. New homes: affordable, accessible and appropriate