Creating retirement housing

The country faces a major housing crisis, with not enough new homes being built for our rapidly growing population. But, says Tony Watts, Chairman of South West Forum on Ageing, there’s an answer that planners and developers are ignoring: create more dedicated housing for older people – and release family homes back into circulation

Forgive me for recycling parts of this article – which was written for our regional daily, the Western Daily Press. But the messages (I feel) are as relevant in other parts of the country as they are in my neck of the woods

And first, let me declare an interest. Or rather, two. Away from my voluntary roles, primarily concerned with older people, I have a ‘day job’ as a writer and journalist, and I regularly write about property – so I have a fair handle on how development and planning work

For the last few years I’ve been trying to bring those two ‘worlds’ together. Because, if society can get its head around the following facts and join the dots, we could solve an awful lot of problems

Firstly, not only here in the West, but nationwide, we’re failing to build enough homes for our growing population. Some of the biggest losers are young people striving to get a home of their own

Simultaneously, there’s a dearth of choice for those older people wishing to move into dedicated housing. Yes, apartments are available and some are absolutely superb; but many are either not in the right place, or fail to meet the design needs that will persuade these homeowners to ‘upsticks’

Consequently, the average of age of those moving into sheltered or dedicated accommodation is late seventies.

Parliament’s backing for more retirement housing

Yet authoritative reports and research show that the whole of society can benefit by each move made

One is given space in this edition of AGEnda: the recent “Housing Our Ageing Population Plan” from The All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People found there were far reaching benefits from developing good quality housing for older people, including reducing health and social care costs

Not only that, it freed up family housing (often with larger gardens and bedrooms than new homes) and stimulated movement in the housing market… something everyone wants

As a society, a huge challenge lies ahead to enable older people to avoid going into expensive residential care: delivering care in the home is the answer

Bringing together older people in one place makes that delivery far more cost-effective. Those choosing to move out of larger houses can reduce their outgoings and (by moving into a better insulated home) keep warm in winter

And there’s also the potential for peer support – ‘younger old’ keeping a weather eye open for ‘older old’ residents

We also know that other benefits include greater opportunities to socialise (loneliness is a blight on many lives, and has a worse health impact than obesity and smoking); and, not least, enables those who are ‘asset rich and cash poor’ to release capital to live a comfortable retirement and fund their care

However… ask many older people about retirement housing and they say that it’s not for them – or that available choices are too distant from their social and support networks

For many, a retirement apartment will NEVER be for them and that choice has to be respected. Think tanks that appear to propose mass migration of the nation’s elderly population will only make the option less appealing. But if you are to persuade more people to make that move, what sort of homes DO older people want? The only way to find out… is to ask older people themselves

Which is what we’ve been doing. At the end of January, 50 representatives from the South West Seniors Network met with Somerset County Council’s care and housing officers and let them know precisely what it would take to encourage them into dedicated retirement housing

Firstly, developments should not be ‘old people’s ghettoes’– but integrated into the local community. They should be close to amenities (surgeries and shops) and have an open door to local events and activities

There’s also a huge role for developments with a common room or fitness equipment to act as a local ‘outreach’ hub. In an ideal world, every village and district would have enough dedicated housing to enable people to stay within their current community

‘Designed for life’ housing

Next, accommodation should be designed to allow people to live independently for as long as possible, even as their mobility and health needs change

The concept of ‘designed for life’ housing has a long way to go in this country, but this could be the start – with support structures in place for hoists, for example, and doorways wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs

Tiny bedsits are not what most want either – having space to have guests to stay is essential

Care and support close at hand is also critical, along with resources like respite care for those with partners with dementia

Modern communications – such as broadband or Wi-Fi – should be built in from the start. Many older people want to stay in touch with friends and family through Skype, or research interests on the web

Assistive Technology (such as equipment to remotely monitor someone’s blood pressure or blood sugar) can play a huge role in enabling those with health issues to remain independent

Not everyone owns their own home, so providing quality accommodation for social housing is essential; so too is the option to rent if you want to sell your current home and release funds

But also what came across loud and clear from our panel of older people is that for new developments to work, there has to be close involvement right from the start with older people from the local community – taking on board THEIR suggestions, knowledge and aspirations.

And ‘aspirations’ is the key word here. Older people are no different from anybody else: create homes to aspire to and the rest will follow

If anyone from the housing sector would like to carry on this conversation, we’d be happy to share more of the detail with you in the hope of helping you make your next development ‘fly off the shelf’ – we are on the side of everyone seeking to develop better choices for older people

While this route can only be part of a wider answer, it could be a very significant part: there were 109,020 completed homes in 2011 – almost 40% below the 2007 peak of 175,560 and less than half the figure which the government agrees would be required annually to meet demand. There are 11 million people of retirement age in the UK. Do the maths

So my parting shot to planners for the next time someone comes along with a prospective development on YOUR patch: retirement accommodation offers relatively high-density housing on brownfield sites – not green fields. These developments create jobs locally for care workers, stimulate local shops and businesses, cut the cost of social and health care in your community and release much needed homes for younger people

What’s not to like?

Twitter: @tonywattswriter  The Sticky Patch