Proposal to include minimum accessibility standards for housing in the NCC

In 2017-18 the ABCB commenced a process to undertake a regulatory impact analysis for the possible inclusion of accessible housing requirements for new residential buildings in the National Construction Code (NCC).

This process, which has included both informal and formal public consultation, has involved the development of options based on the ‘Silver’ and ‘Gold’ specifications in the Livable Housing Design Guidelines and the commissioning of The Centre for International Economics (CIE) to independently prepare a regulatory impact statement (RIS).
A Consultation RIS was released for public comment on 6 July to 31 August 2020, in response to which 203 submissions were received canvassing a range of issues and positions. Non-confidential submissions can be accessed on Consultation Hub.
All submissions were taken into consideration by the CIE in preparing a Decision RIS, which represents one input into the decision making process of Building Ministers. The final Decision RIS was assessed as compliant by the Office of Best Practice Regulation under Council of Australian Government's RIS requirements.
Building Ministers considered this issue on 30 April 2021. For further information see the Building Ministers Meeting Communique.