Access audits

Independent access audits give authoritative guidance on how to improve a building’s accessibility. They are free and available to all eligible organisations wherever the building is owned or with a lease over five years.

Once you have an access audit, whether by one of our approved consultants or an accredited third party, you can apply for funds to carry out the building work it recommends through our capital funding grant (further details at the bottom of this page).

An access audit can also fund design appraisals of existing plans and disability awareness training for your staff and volunteers.

Average award: Based on grants made to date, we have awarded between £1,000 and £5,000, the average award size has been £3,500* *These figures are illustrative and we will award more or less than these amounts depending on the applications we receive. You can find out more about our approach to funding here.

Who will we fund? To qualify for a grant, applicants must be based within Greater London and must be one of the following:

• registered charity
• community interest company limited by guarantee
• registered charitable incorporated organisation
• charitable company
• excepted charities
• registered charitable industrial and provident society or charitable BenCom

While we cannot fund access audits for buildings exclusively used to advance the promotion of any specific religion, we can support audits of religious centres when they serve the wider community. For example, we could fund an access audit for a church hall, mosque or temple that can prove it provides inclusive services that are open to people of all faiths.

Before applying To apply for an access audit online you’ll need to confirm:

that your building and its activities benefit the wider community and do not exclusively advance the promotion of any of specific religion

the building is owned by your organisation or has a lease of over five years

you have a written quotation from an access auditor registered with the National Register of Access Consultants or our partner the Centre for Accessible Environments

If you are considering an audit we recommend contacting the Access and Sustainability Adviser that we fund at the Centre for Accessible Environments for free advice and guidance on the process. Telephone 020 7822 8242 or email asas@cae.org.uk.