Home improvement grants
Home owners and private tenants
Different grants and assistance is available from the Home Improvement Team to support a resident to live safely and with dignity.
- Disabled Facilities Grants (Mandatory)
- Top up Disabled Facilities Grants (Discretionary)
- Independent Living Grants ((Discretionary)
- Relocation Grants (Discretionary)
Grants are available to adapt a property, or to get help and support to repair a home, that enables a resident to live safely and with dignity. We offer grants to residents who are:
- registered disabled or
- have a disabled person (adult or child) living with you in the home, or
- are over 60
- receive a low household income
All applications must be supported by an Occupational Therapist or Trusted Assessor, or similar competent person in the First Contact Team.
Check whether you are eligible for assistance
View the Home Improvement and Disabled Adaptation Grants leaflet (PDF 440KB)
Equipment
If you are finding it difficult at home with daily tasks, there is a range of specially designed equipment to help make life easier and enable you to live independently in your own home.
Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)
This grant can be used to modify an individual's home environment to restore or enable independent living, privacy, confidence and dignity for individuals and their families.
The eligibility criteria are:
- You or someone living in your property must be disabled
- You or the person you’re applying for can own the property, or be a tenant (social housing or private let), but you must intend to live there during the "grant period" (currently 5 years)
- The requested adaptation must be "necessary and appropriate" to meet your needs
- The requested adaptation must be "reasonable and practicable" for your home environment
Applications up to a value of £30,000, are accepted for essential improvement works including:
- Improving access to the home, i.e. ramps and half steps
- Improving access and movement in the home, i.e. hoists and stairlifts
- Providing suitable hygiene facilities - e. bathroom and toilet facilities
It cannot be given for work that is already in progress or that has been completed, you must apply for DFG funding before you start any work at your property.
Disabled Facilities Grant: Top-up
A discretionary top-up payment can be made to a home owner, in addition to the Disabled Facilities Grant. No separate application is required as it is linked to the DFG. The maximum top-up grant is £20,000. A means test will be applied for top up assistance for both adult and children’s applications.
We provide the additional funding to meet the cost of aids and adaptations, for a resident to live independently in their home where a DFG is approved at the statutory maximum level (currently £30,000).
Independent Living Grants
These grants enable adaptations to a home, which assist with independent living, but add no value to a property, such as stair lifts and level access showers. It can assist with keeping a resident safe at home and allow a faster discharge from hospital. It can provide funding to repair and replace inefficient heating systems to prevent worsening an existing medical condition, that may result in an unnecessary hospital admission.
- The application must be supported by an Occupational Therapist or Trusted Assessor, or similar competent person, in our First Contact team
- There is no means test for this grant and there are no repayment conditions
- Maximum assistance available is £12,000.
The grant will be available for items such as:
- Replacing floor coverings that cause confusion or safety issues
- Replacing tiling or bathroom fittings (such as toilet seats and rails) to improve visual perception
- Changing cupboards to glass fronted doors, to enable recognition of where items are in the kitchen
- Changing lighting schemes to improve visibility around the home
- Installing noise reduction measures
- Ensuring gardens and paths are level and free from hazards
- installing signage for easier recognition
Relocation Grants
Where home adaptation is not appropriate, we can offer assistance with relocation costs to a more suitable property. This property must be free from category 1 hazards and be adaptable to meet the needs of a disabled person, as required in the Disabled Facilities Grant.
Maximum assistance available is £10,000. There is no means test for this grant and no repayment conditions; it can cover:
- legal costs
- estate agent’s fees
- removal costs
- essential utility and service set up costs
An individual who receives relocation assistance will not be entitled to a similar claim for a period of 10 years. Receiving this grant does not prevent applicants applying and potentially receiving grants and assistance from other schemes in this policy.
Other additional grants
Empty property grants
The empty property grants offer owners funding to carry out repairs to bring the property back into use. The conditions for this funding have been revised to make them more attractive, with the aim of bringing more empty properties back into use.
Redbridge Handy Person Scheme
HEET delivers the scheme on our behalf. For a small charge, the scheme assists older, vulnerable and disabled residents with odd jobs and small-scale repairs around the home.
The service is available to all Redbridge residents who are:
- aged 60 years or over;
- disabled or have a long term serious illness or health problem which makes it difficult to carry out the work; or
- awaiting discharge from hospital.
Home Repairs Assistance (Discretionary)
This grant will meet the reasonable costs of small scale essential repairs or improvements necessary to rectify health or safety hazards within your home.
Given the increased prevalence of hoarding and self-neglect in the borough, the grant will also be used to help fund clearance and blitz cleaning costs in properties. Eligibility is dependent on a referral from a competent person such as a Social Worker or other Mental Health Practitioner and the amount of funding will be agreed on a case by case basis in line with the local Redbridge Safeguarding Adult Self-Neglect and Hoarding protocol. The maximum grant will £10,000 and will be subject to a means test to determine eligibility. The grant will be subject to a land charge and is repayable if the property is sold with 10 years of the completion of the work.
For more information, contact the HomeImprovementTeam@redbridge.gov.uk
Home Security Grants (Discretionary)
This grant will assist property owners to improve the security of their properties to prevent a burglary. Any assistance available will be targeted in areas where there is a known high burglary rate or there are indications that it could become one. Grants are available up to a maximum of £5,000 per property for approved security measures including:
- Works to provide a communal intercom door entry system or door entry system providing it includes all lets
- Window and door locks
- Approved door viewers
- Letterbox shrouds (stops ‘key fishing’)
- London and Birmingham bars (strengthens the door frame against 'kick-in' attack.)
To be eligible for a grant the applicant must have an owner’s interest in the property.
For communal intercom door entry systems, the property must be either let as bedsits or hostel accommodation, with some sharing of basic amenities, self-contained or purpose-built flats. At completion of the works to rented properties, the landlord must be a member of the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme and where premises are licensable under Part 2 or Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004, the premises are licensed.
For more information, contact the HomeImprovementTeam@redbridge.gov.uk