On 30 April 2021, the Australian Building Ministers Meeting met and agreed to include minimum accessibility provisions for residential housing and apartments in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 based on the Livable Housing Design Guidelines (LHDG) silver standards.
The Australian Building Codes Board prepared a Council of Australian Government’s Decision Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) to support Ministers' consideration of the proposals.
Accessible housing is housing that includes features to enable use by people either with a disability or transitioning through their life stages. The minimum accessibility standards for housing considered in the RIS are based on the specifications in the LHDG 2017.
The Decision RIS analyses four potential amendments to the National Construction Code, based on the various accessibility tiers in the LHDG, in addition to a hypothetical subsidy model, and an enhanced approach to voluntary guidance (non-regulatory). All options are compared to the status quo (that is, not including minimum accessibility standards in the National Construction Code).
The Decision RIS concludes that, based on the best data available, each of the regulated options would likely result in a net cost to the Australian community. However, on the basis of a hypothetical model, a targeted subsidy scheme could yield a net benefit.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation assessed the Decision RIS as compliant with the Council of Australian Government’s Best Practice Regulation requirements.
Please note: any accessibility queries should be directed to the Australian Building Codes Board