Housing

The duty in s 49A(1) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 applied to local authorities in carrying out all their functions under Pt VII of the 1996 Act. In making determinations under Pt VII of the Housing Act 1996 in areas in which a person’s disability could be of relevance, a local authority should have due regard to the need to take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities. In circumstances in which a reviewing officer under s 202 of the 1996 Act, or the initial decision maker under s 184 of that Act, was not invited to consider an alleged disability, it would be wrong in the light of s 49A(1) to say that he should consider disability only if it was obvious. On the contrary, he needed to have due regard to the need for him to take steps to take account of it. That did not mean that in every case a decision maker under ss 184 or 202