Disability deduction

My client’s business office is on the first floor of a commercial building. The ground floor premises in the terrace of buildings are shops with offices occupying the floors above.

One of my client’s employees was in a car crash and is a wheelchair user. He can carry out the duties of his office-based employment but the problem is access: there is no lift in the building. My client is proposing to install a chairlift from the ground floor to the first floor.

This will involve some considerable initial cost and ongoing maintenance charges but will this be allowable for tax purposes against the business profits?

My first thought was that it would be but is this expense for business purposes or does it simply put the employee in a position to perform his duties? In fact I then started to wonder whether there might...