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Dutch Policy and Practice in Relation to Ageing and Cohousing

Dutch Policy and Practice in Relation to Ageing and Cohousing COVER

This UK Cohousing Network paper, prepared for the Taskforce on Older People's Housing, is a review of policies and practice around senior cohousing in The Netherlands, offering instructive messages from a society that is ageing like our own.

Written by Maria Brenton, consultant to the project that resulted in the New Ground cohousing community, High Barnet and UK Cohousing Network Senior Cohousing Ambassador, the report outlines background detail, recent policy developments in the Netherlands, main message from a scan of Dutch housing and care policies and offers conclusions about compaison with the situation in the UK. 

A major lesson the willingness of the Dutch government to ‘think long’ and invest in senior cohousing, spending modest amounts now against expected future savings to the public purse, helping to unlock equity currently tied up in older people’s homes and freeing up family-sized housing.