Tuesday 25th July 1978
Motability, a new scheme providing cars for disabled people was launched in Earl’s Court, London, with the handing over of ten specially modified cars.
By the mid 1970s over 40% of households in the country owned a car but disabled people claimed that they were missing out. Only those who could drive themselves received any government help with transport, usually in the form of a blue trike which was unable to take passengers. The Mobility Allowance – now called the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance – introduced by the Government in 1976 broke the mould in giving help regardless of ability to drive. It also signalled the Government’s commitment to giving disabled people choice in the form of a cash allowance, rather than imposing certain types of vehicles on them.
The Mobility Allowance was a positive advance but it soon became clear that it was not large enough to buy and run even the smallest car. The then Secretary of State for Health and Social Services invited the late Lord Goodman and (now Lord) Jeffrey Sterling to consider how disabled people could use this allowance to affordably obtain a vehicle. Thus Motability was born in 1977 and, often for the first time, disabled people could afford a good quality car from any participating manufacturer, fully insured, serviced, and with breakdown assistance. Motability was set up as a charity so it could also raise funds and make grants, in order to provide customers with a complete mobility package even if their allowance would not cover the type of car and adaptations that they needed.
Motability opened up new horizons for many disabled people. Things that were once difficult to do, such as getting to work, going shopping, doing volunteer work, visiting friends, getting to the doctor, going swimming, giving a family member a lift, or enjoying a driving holiday, became easier. For some, enhanced opportunities for further education and profitable full-time employment became a reality for the first time.
On 25 July 1978 ten young people attended the first Motability Scheme vehicle handover at Earls Court in London and received the keys to their new vehicles from then Chairman Lord Goodman. Julie Newport, disabled by polio, was one of the ten to receive her keys and commented: “I think it’s marvellous,” saying the Scheme gave disabled people the freedom and independence they really wanted. Also present were Rt Hon Lord Morris, Rt Hon Lord Jenkin, Allan Beard and Jeffrey Sterling, the present Chairman of Motability.
In 2003, Motability celebrated its 25th anniversary with a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. The garden included a Motability car, an adapted Renault Clio, to symbolise disabled people gaining access to the remotest parts of the countryside.
In October 2006, the Scheme hit the two million vehicles mark and Jeffrey Sterling commented: “Family life revolves around the disabled person so if you make someone mobile you don’t help two million, it’s more like six to eight million.”
The late Lord Goodman described the establishment of Motability in 1977 as “the most successful achievement of my career and the most fortunate thought that ever came into my head”.
