Government Publishes The Older People’s Housing Taskforce Report
The Government has today published the report of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce: ‘Our future homes: housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population’.
Chaired by Professor Julienne Meyer CBE, the Taskforce undertook an assessment of the market for specialised and supported older people’s housing, and explored options for the provision of greater choice and quality of housing to better meet older people’s needs.
The Taskforce has made several recommendations to Government, including:
• Introducing a National Development Management Policy for older people’s housing.
• Protecting consumers from hidden event fees.
• Exploring how new tenure models used overseas have helped improve customer affordability.
• Providing certainty over long-term rental and service charge settlements for social and affordable providers.
Victoria Thourgood, Head of Corporate Real Estate who heads up the later living practice at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Tackling the acute shortage in appropriate housing for older people is an urgent priority, which will not only ensure we have sufficient affordable age-friendly accommodation but should have the knock-on positive effect of freeing up other housing stock, helping people to get on to and climb the property ladder.
“This report therefore offers a tantalising opportunity to begin building the foundations of a housing strategy that addresses the needs of all our population.”
“In particular, the taskforce’s recommendation to set a target of 10% of affordable housing being earmarked for later living is a crucial intervention, given that currently 3% of new homes are developed as senior housing at a time when we’re hurtling towards a quarter of the UK population will be aged 65-plus by 2040.”
“Tweaks to the planning system can also help to ramp up development at the necessary scale, while helping to keep town and city centres vibrant with footfall as retail use wanes.”
“A sharpened focus on bringing senior housing to market at lower price points by exploring more flexible designs and construction methods, expanding shared ownership schemes into later living, and offering financial incentives such as a capped stamp duty for ‘rightsizing’ reflects the innovative thinking that will be required to move this forward.”
“Nine in 10 of retirement housing residents are previous homeowners, yet age-friendly accommodation must also be accessible to those who don’t have property capital.”
“Adequate funding for support and care provision also needs addressing. While these recommendations may help to address the structural issues that prevent large-scale integrated retirement communities from being developed, we also need to balance this with challenges at the other end of the scale to develop a skilled workforce of carers.”
“More thinking is also needed on the cultural barriers to the concept of downsizing and ‘rightsizing’ in the UK, which lags behind countries like the US and Canada in normalising this practice. A wider conversation must take place within the social care sector, in collaboration with others, about how we improve the attractiveness of the integrated retirement community offer so that it becomes a no-brainer for people entering their later years.”
Sam Monaghan, Chief Executive at MHA said: “Older people want and need access to the kind of specialist housing that meets their hopes and wishes for later life, but the nation is not developing at the rate people need us to.”
“This week, the older people’s housing taskforce warns us that continuing the current state of affairs is not an option.”
“We welcome the Government’s ambitions for housing, and support the taskforce’s call for long-term National Housing Strategy for an Ageing Population. More than this, to do everything we can to meet older people’s needs, we urgently need stability in social care funding.”
