Leaseholder Disability Action Group

Claddag

We are a group of residents who are disabled or have health conditions, living in homes affected by the cladding and building safety crisis.

Our Stories
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Additional Impacts

Beyond the financial pressure affecting everyone, disabled residents face additional and unique challenges from the cladding crisis.

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Building Safety

We advocate for safe evacuation plans and building safety measures that include and protect disabled leaseholders.

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Our Asks

We call on government and industry to recognise and respond to the specific needs of disabled residents trapped by this crisis.

Who We Are

Disabled Residents Affected by the Cladding Crisis

Claddag — the Cladding Leaseholder Disability Action Group — was formed by residents with disabilities and health conditions who are trapped in unsafe, unsellable homes due to the post-Grenfell building safety crisis. We share stories, challenge policy, and fight for fair treatment.

700k+
Affected Homes
%
In Unsafe Buildings
£0
Gov. Support for Many
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Stories to Tell
News & Views

Recent Updates

Campaign
Home Office Workshops: PEEPs Consultation — Disabled Residents Must Be Heard
 News
Channel 4 News: Councils Have No Evacuation Plans for Disabled People
 Myth-Busting
Mythbusting PEEPs #1: "You Create a Hazard"
 Myth-Busting
Mythbusting PEEPs #2: "Disabled People Prefer to Stay Put"
 Campaign
Waking Watch: The Extra Burden on Disabled Residents
 Survey
National Survey: Leaseholders Who Have Impairments or Health Conditions

Mythbusting PEEPs #4: “They’re only for wheelchair users”

Posted bycladdagPosted inEvacuationTags:,

There is a whole range of reasons why people may not be able to self-evacuate. A mobility impairment is just one.

Five stickmen in a row. Four are blue, one is red.
One in five people in the UK are disabled

There are over 14 million disabled people in the UK. That’s one in five of us. One in five of us are not wheelchair users. Other impairments will include hearing and sight, learning disability, being neurodivergent and mental health conditions. In fact, it is estimated that that 80% of disabilities are ‘hidden’, for example anxiety and epilepsy.

Questions that help us to consider if a person can self-evacuate include:

  • Can you hear the alarm?
  • Do you understand what that sound means?
  • Can you safely descend stairwells?

This will be particularly relevant to blind and Deaf people, those with learning disabilities or anyone who takes a little longer to process information.

We also need to remember those who are temporarily disabled, such as following surgery or an injury. A resident may be laying in bed in their flat for many weeks in a plaster cast.

Older white woman with short grey hair and a trenchcoat is smiling
Older people may not consider themselves to be disabled

46% of pension age adults are disabled. Age and disability overlap as many impairments are often linked with age, such as arthritis and hearing loss. It’s important to remember that many older people living with impairments do not consider themselves to be ‘disabled’. Like disabled people, older people must be encouraged to reflect on their ability to self-evacuate in discussions which are tactful, sensitive and give no suggestion that they cannot live independently. Otherwise it may be distressing and end in the person abandoning the process.

Finally, the burden of fighting for evacuation plans is exacerbating the health conditions of many disabled people. One disabled leaseholder’s post-traumatic stress disorder is being regularly triggered every time she asks her managing agent for an evacuation plan. To this day she cannot get their support to create one.

If you agree that everyone who cannot self-evacuate deserves the opportunity to talk through their options of how to escape a fire in their block, please respond to the Government consultation by 19 July 2021.

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