I'm very happy to pick up on what Jim said about accessible housing. As I mentioned, care and repair services are targeted at older, vulnerable owner-occupiers, and, actually, four out of five of our clients identify as being disabled as well. So, I think there are huge opportunities here, and having this right in law, I think, will have a really big impact on accessible housing. For example, we've known for a really long time that we don't have enough accessible housing in Wales. The Wales Audit Office predicted that, in about 2025, so in two years' time, there'll be around 50,000 people aged 65 and older who are going to need housing adaptations, essentially. Care and Repair are seeing that as well, in the increase in demand for our service. Last year, we completed around 20,000 home adaptations, which was the highest amount of home adaptations we'd completed since 2014. So, we're seeing that demand increase.
But we still don't have enough accessible housing, and so I think having a legislative right to adequate housing would really drive forward the impetus to actually start tackling this problem that we know exists. Because having the right would require the Welsh Government and other public sector bodies to make a plan to meet this additional demand that we know is going to be there. This could be then reviewed, organisations like Care and Repair could work with the Welsh Government or other organisations. And if we continue to not have enough accessible housing, under this right in law, we would then need to justify why we didn't have enough accessible housing. So, it's that accountability—this mechanism of having the right in law provides a mechanism for accountability as to why we're not meeting the needs of older and more vulnerable people in Wales when it comes to their housing. That would really help us deliver better outcomes for older people living in their own homes.
The other point I wanted to make, if that's okay, is that, often, as I mentioned, our clients are living in some of the worst housing conditions, and come to us after they've reached crisis point. They come to us because they've had an interaction with the health service, for example—they've had a fall in their home, because their home's unsuitable for them; it's got hazards and they've fallen over. Because this is tenure neutral, it will provide more impetus to help vulnerable people, rather than looking at it from a tenure perspective. As I mentioned, older people are much more likely to own their own homes, but it would mean that for those people who are unseen, who we only see once they have reached crisis point, it will give that impetus to be able to start designing policy in way that would help them. These are the people who are too proud to admit that there's a problem in their home, or don't recognise it because they've learned over time to cope with draughty windows, leaky windows—whatever it is. Often, they call us, and they say, 'Oh, my window's leaking', and, actually, you go into the property, and, yes, the window is leaking, but because the window's leaking, there's now water in the electrics, so the electrics aren't working, there's dangerous wiring, there's draught, there's damp, there's mould, there's condensation. People just learn to live with these things. And because this Act is really people focused, it will help us, really, to give people rights when they're struggling in these situations but don't necessarily know that there's anything they can do about it.