Housing grants

Mandatory Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)

A Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is a means-tested grant to help with the cost of home adaptations.

Cotswold District Council works with Gloucestershire County Council to provide DFGs to residents who have been assessed by an occupational therapist and are eligible for help.

To find out more about DFGs and how to apply, visit: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/disabilities/disabled-facilities-grants/

Grant assistance is available to give the disabled person more independence in and around their home and access to essential facilities. A grant up to £30,000 can be given. Adaptations range from ramps, stair lifts and replacing a bath with a shower to building a ground floor bathroom extension.

What is a Disabled Facilities Grant?

Council and Housing Association tenants

If you’re a Council or Housing Association tenant who needs minor adaptations such as grab rails you can request this work directly from you landlord.

Steps to request a Disabled Facilities Grant

Step 1: Contact relevant Social Services helpdesk below to set up a visit and assessment by an Occupational Therapist

Grant assistance can only be considered once the council has received a referral from an Occupational Therapist so the first step to making a grant application is to phone the relevant helpdesk below and set up an Occupational Therapist assessment to see if they think adaptations would be necessary to meet the disabled person’s needs.

Helpdesk	Telephone	Email and website
Adult Social Care	01452 426868	Email: Adult Social Care team Website: Adult Social Care - General Enquiry Form \| ASC Form Privacy – Gloucestershire Forms
Children and families for disabled children up to 19 years	01452 426565	Email: Children's helpdesk Website: https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/our-teams-and-services/childrens-occupational-therapy/

Step 2: The Occupational Therapist will send the council a referral if they think adaptations are required to meet the medical needs of the disabled person

Step 3: The Grant officer will contact the applicant to start the application process

For more information please:

View guidance on applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)

Discretionary grants

Warm and Well

Cotswold District Council, along with the six other councils in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, works in partnership with Seven Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) to run the Warm and Well project, offering free energy advice to residents.

For details click here: Warm and Well Scheme

Relocation grant

In some cases if adaptations are too costly or not feasible, we may need to consider rehousing to a more suitable property. There is a discretionary grant available from the council that could help with relocation costs and/or purchasing costs of a new property. For more information about rehousing to a housing association property, please:

View the moving on/relocation grant information sheet
Visit the Homeseeker Plus website

Agent information and resources

If you are in need of an agent or surveyor to help with plans for an adaptation, please see the Project Managers (agents) list below along with the following guide for appointing a contractor or agent and a guide setting out the expectations for an agent:

Funding for Community-led Housing

The Government’s Community Housing Fund is managed by Homes England. The bidding for this grant programme has finished. However, on the 30th January 2021 the government announced the renewal of the Community Housing Fund for 2021/2022 to support community led housing. The Community Housing Fund will provide revenue funding aimed at supporting community-based organisations to progress opportunities for local house building projects and prepare bids to access grant funding from the Affordable Homes Programme. We hope further information will be available shortly.

The Community Led Homes website has a comprehensive list of funding sources for Community-led housing.

We have a small amount of funding to support groups in the Cotswolds with their Community-led housing projects.

There are two grants available:

the start-up grant of up to £1000, for groups to become established in their community and incorporate into a formal organisation
pre-development grant (up to £10,000) for established groups who are progressing their housing project to planning application stage.