Council suddenly pulls funding from disabled woman despite seven-year accessible housing nightmare

A local authority has suddenly pulled the plug on funding that would have ended the seven-year accessible housing ordeal of a disabled woman and her family.

Afsheen Durrani, her husband Imran, and their two children, were finally told in March this year that contractors would begin work on building a ground-floor extension and wet room, seven years after they first appealed to the council for help.

But after months more delays, they were told last week by a council officer that Labour-run Hounslow council could no longer afford to carry out the £40,000 work on their council-owned home.

The work had been approved by the council, although it is not yet clear if it was being paid for through council funding or the government’s disabled facilities grant (DFG) programme, which provides hundreds of millions of pounds every year to help councils fund access improvements to disabled people’s homes.

The Durranis have been seeking a solution to their housing nightmare for seven years, because Afsheen has multiple health conditions, including diabetes, a heart condition, brittle bones, asthma, and osteoarthritis, and is waiting for dialysis and for kidney and pancreas transplants.

The bathroom is on the first floor of their end-of-terrace home, and the council concluded it was not possible or suitable to install a lift or stairlift, or a downstairs bathroom.

Afsheen and Imran (pictured) now sleep in the ground-floor living-room, which has been turned into a bedroom.

But every time she needs to use the toilet, her husband needs to support her up the stairs to the bathroom, lifting her up each step one at a time.

The council has already accepted she is at risk of falls, following an occupational therapy assessment.

Imran, a former revenue officer for the council, has developed severe muscular problems due to his full-time caring duties.

Their living arrangements mean they cannot entertain friends and family in their home.

They first applied for help with adaptations to their home in April 2017, but after options like a stairlift or a lift were ruled out, the council suggested they move to an accessible property.

Hounslow council eventually accepted that none of the properties they were offered were suitable for Afsheen.

But they also failed to tell the family about the DFG system.

Early last year, the council was forced to apologise and pay the family £250 compensation – on the orders of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman – because of its failure.

The family were told the extension and wet room would cost £40,000, so they applied through the council for a grant to cover the work, although it is not clear whether this was a DFG.

The council approved the £40,000 grant – certain to be many times cheaper than building a new accessible property – in February 2023, and after more than a year of further delays, they were finally given a date in March 2024 for the work to start the following month.

But last week, after months of poor communication and further delays, they were told that Hounslow council was abandoning the project because it no longer had the money to fund the work.

Afsheen told Disability News Service that she has been driven to the point of despair by the seven-year delay and the way they have been treated by the council.

She said: “It’s terrible, especially after seven years of waiting. They don’t care about our situation.

“It’s so difficult doing daily things. Going to the toilet is a mission for me.

“I was going to have my freedom and my dignity…”

Asked how he felt about the way they had been treated, Imran said: “I don’t have the words.

“My wife has suffered so much, I have suffered so much, my children.”

Hounslow council has so far failed to explain why the grant was suddenly withdrawn; how the council justified leaving the family in such an inaccessible and unsafe situation for the last seven years; and what action it was planning to take to provide safe, accessible housing for the Durranis.

Despite Afsheen providing written permission for the council to discuss their case, the council said it would be a “breach of privacy” to do so.

Instead, it produced a statement which failed to mention them by name, or comment on their situation.

Cllr Sue Sampson, the council’s cabinet member for housing management and homelessness, said: “The council is committed to championing equal access for all of our residents with disabilities.

“We work hard to ensure adaptation needs are met and have completed 174 adaptations within the housing stock to support residents with their housing needs this year alone.

“However, the current housing aids and adaptations budget is only £1.2 million, while requests for adaptations have risen by 15 per cent on last year, and unfortunately that means demand outstrips the budget and we have to assess cases based on priority and risk.

“As part of our development programme, we ensure that a proportion of our new affordable housing provision is accessible housing.

“Since March 2024, 31 new wheelchair-adapted homes have been handed over to be let.

“We also ensure all new developments in the borough meet planning requirements and planning policy on the provision of wheelchair-accessible homes.

“Forty-two new wheelchair-accessible homes are expected among the homes currently under construction by the council.”

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