Published by the Retirement Housing Group of the House Builders Federation. For more information about the Group and its work, contact Vivien Aldred (01603 507855)
SUSTAINABLE HOMES FOR AN AGEING POPULATION
"By planning now, we can position ourselves to exploit the opportunities and meet the challenges. We can anticipate changes caused by population ageing and adapt our behaviour to avoid potential problems"
"The Age Shift - Priority for Action", DTI Foresight Ageing Population Panel, December 2000
Meeting the Challenges of an Ageing Population
Most people are aware that our population is ageing. In the next decade the number of people who are 60 or over will increase by about 1M and will continue to increase up to 2030.
The scale of that change is sometimes hard to imagine. What it means is that while, today, people under 40 out number those over 60 by two to one, they will be equal in number by 2020 and, by 2030, there will be one-fifth more over-60s than under-30s. What is not so well recognised is how poorly our existing housing stock matches even the current age profile of the population, let alone what can be predicted by 2011.
Sheltered Housing can Help
Existing owner occupiers who are now aged 45-59 will be the fastest growing group of the over 60s in the next two decades. Currently, there are 4.8M owner-occupier households of retirement age. This will rise to 5.9M by 2011 and to 6.9M by 2021. 77% of them are already owner-occupiers, mainly of family housing, and it is they who will form the largest part of this increase of 2M retirement age households over the next 20 years(1).
Out of a total housing stock of 21M there are about 500,000 sheltered properties (2.4%) in all sectors. Less than 70,000 of these were initially developed privately, and currently this is only growing at around 2,500 each year.
Retirement and sheltered housing will have to play an increasing role in meeting the demands of this ageing population, if we are to make the best use of our total housing stock.
An adequate supply will also help to ensure the welfare of older people and guarantee their quality of life so, clearly, we need to increase the supply of housing that these households will want to buy, to meet both their needs and also other planning and environmental policies for a more sustainable future.
Meeting Government Policy Objectives on Sustainability and Brownfield Regeneration
As we all know, many retired people do not want to move and wish to stay in their family home for as long as possible - but this does lead to significant under-occupancy. But if elderly couples, as well as single people, could be given more choice and greater opportunity to move to retirement and sheltered housing, more would move and this would free up some existing family housing, reducing the need to build more new houses.
And the fact that retirement developers particularly want to build on urban and brownfield sites, or to convert existing buildings, in preference to greenfields, means that they are making a significant contribution to a more sustainable future.
They provide high density development with the need for much less parking than conventional developments and, ideally, want them to be within walking distance of facilities and/or public transport routes.
Given the forecast growth in the number of elderly people, Government has been thinking for some time about the consequences. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) set up the Foresight programme in 1993 to prepare for 2020 and, in its consultation paper, "The Age Shift", the Foresight Ageing Population Panel looks at the consequences of an ageing population. In 1998 an Inter-Ministerial Group on Older People was established. Its Report, "Quality and Choice for Older People`s Housing - A Strategic Framework" (January 2001) says:
"The increasing older population poses a challenge for social policy generally, and housing policy specifically. In what form and at what cost do we make adequate provision for the housing, care and support needs of older people? With the ageing profile changing so rapidly (people living longer with a more healthy lifestyle and an increase in owner occupation), there is a direct impact on the provision of decent, affordable and appropriate housing for older people."
"The housing solutions and limited choice that were acceptable to previous generations of older people do not necessarily meet the expectations of current and future generations"
"In the private sector, there is evidence that some older people often consider an early move to schemes that offer care and support services on site should these become necessary. Moving to good quality sheltered housing in the public and the private sector is a positive experrience for many older people. It enables older people to retain their independence in a home appropriate to their needs whilst receiving support, security and company"
"Local authorities have a key role to play here in taking the lead locally. We want to see authorities addressing the objectives and issues identified in this strategic framework in their Community Strategies, Housing Strategies, Best Value reviews, care and support service planning, local transport plans, community safety strategies, and the range of other relevant strategic planning, service commissioning and service delivery mechanisms." (our emphasis)
The Government`s "Supporting People" initiative is intended, in part, to respond to this. As Housing Minister Nick Raynsford MP said:
"Britain is fortunate in having an effective and valuable stock of supported and sheltered housing, providing much-needed help to people such as the elderly...the programme" [Supporting People] "will raise the priority of support services and encourage councils to take a more strategic approach to provision, integrating it fully with social and health services, housing, neighbourhood renewal and community safety"
Helping Local Authorities Meet Identified Housing Needs
But local authorities will have the principal responsibility for enabling the right kinds and numbers of housing for this need to come forward, through their housing and planning policies.
They are now required to compile an up-to-date and robust Housing Needs Survey. DETR Good Practice Note No. 117 (2) makes it clear that older people must be specifically identified with the household totals and that they are a key category under the "Supporting People" initiative.
Housing Needs Surveys "should be able to collect information on older people`s housing preferences and expectations. This could inform the planning of retirement housing provision and feed into consideration of how care and support services should develop in future...(3)
So as well as surveying older people`s likely requirements for specialised housing, planning policy needs to make positive provision for it, recognising that this will contribute to the over-riding objectives of sustainable development by achieving greater density, less car dependency and better use of existing stock.
The Extra Costs of Providing Sheltered Housing
Planning for this sector does raise the need to consider some of the special features of housing for older people. Sheltered housing is defined as:
"housing which is purpose built or converted exclusively for sale to elderly people with a package of estate management services and which consists of grouped, self-contained accommodation which an emergency alarm system, usually with communal facilities and normally with a resident warden".
It is built for people with increasing dependency as they grow older, who are progressively more reliant on disability and other allowances, and who would otherwise require more expensive nursing home facilities far earlier. As such it is both more costly to provide but it is also cost-effective to the public sector as a way of providing for a special needs group.
It is more expensive to build because it has a range of services - communal lounges, laundries, guest rooms, landscaped and maintained areas, numerous mobility features, wardens and/or alarm facilities - which are not usual in normal "for sale" housing. Indeed, this unsaleable space amounts to between 25-40% of the internal space, depending on the type of sheltered scheme it is. Development finance is also more expensive because, unlike mainstream housing, which is sold one-by-one as the development is completed, the whole scheme must generally be built before elderly purchasers and their often anxious children and relatives will consider buying.
But meanwhile developers of new homes for sale are now forced by planning policy to compete for the same urban brownfields and the ideal locations for sheltered housing may also be attractive to commercial developers. Both can generate high values and therefore pay higher prices, without having to carry the same costs as retirement housing developers.
So some positive action is needed to restore parity.
Sheltered Housing and Planning Obligations
The sensible application of planning obligations, particularly for social housing, can help here. PPG 3 indicates that sites must be suitable for the inclusion of social housing, both in terms of size and viability, and schemes intended for the elderly, incurring these higher costs, may not be suitable for the inclusion of the same amount of social housing as might be required on other sites. this was recognised by DETR Minister Chris Mullin, when he wrote on 6 June 2000,
"I agree that the size of a proposal is important in deciding whether it is suitable for accommodating a reasonable mix of types of housing. That is why the Circular" [6/98] "advises local planning authorities to assess the suitability of sites on which an element of affordable housing may be sought against the criteria it sets out in paragraph 10, taking into account its size or the number of dwellings proposed, any site constraints, and its accessibility to local services and facilities. It also means taking into account the economics of provision and the need to achieve a successful housing development. In this we aim to achieve a level playing field for all housebuilding sectors".
And quite apart from financial viability, it is only commonsense that increasingly old and frail people in their late 70s and 80s are unlikely to find the lifestyle of younger people, living in a scheme developed specifically for the elderly, particularly congenial or, indeed, vice versa.
Filling the Gap left by the Escalating Closure of Residential Care and Nursing Homes
Finally, not all people over 60 are the same or have the same needs. Active 60 to 70 year olds become frail 80 and 85 year olds who need some care, although not necessarily nursing. At a time when the numbers of nursing and residential care home beds are reducing significantly (and it is likely that, for legislative and financial reasons, this trend will continue), (4) more highly sheltered housing schemes can take people out of their existing homes but keep them as active as possible at far less cost than nursing home facilities.
It has been observed that, with the burden of home maintenance and fears about safety and security removed from their shoulders, overall mental and physical health of elderly residents of sheltered housing markedly improves. Pressures on local authority social services and services provided by the NHS can be reduced as a result.
So the provision of retirement and sheltered housing throughout the age ranges can play a vital part in any local housing strategy and ensure that elderly people enjoy the choice of the most appropriate housing during their increasingly long retirement.
As the Foresight Ageing Population Panel says;
"over the next thirty years the UK`s population will age markedly. The postwar baby boom will age first into middle age and then into older age. Rapid advances in life expectancy at older ages mean that successive generations of older people are living much longer...the reshaping of the age pyramid will reach into all corners of society. It offers fresh opportunities for businesses large and small. New markets for products and services will open up in the UK as the number of people who are 60 and over will rise by more than a half to 19m in 2030...design for inclusion should be the leitmotif of design in an ageing population. The aim is to promote healthy, active ageing, postpone and avoid dependency whenever possible, and facilitate full participation in society..."
Sheltered housing must play a key role in achieving this.