In memoriam: Professor Anthea Tinker CBE

It was with great sadness that the Housing LIN learned that Professor Anthea Tinker died earlier this week. She was Professor of Social Gerontology, a great professional friend to the Housing LIN, and a personal friend of our CEO, Jeremy Porteus.

Anthea contributed to the Housing LIN in many ways over the years. She was a keynote speaker at our 2013/14 annual conference in London. She also wrote several papers for the Housing LIN on age-friendly housing and neighbourhoods, and technology-enabled care, and invited the Housing LIN to participate in a variety of NIHR, UKRI and other funded research projects with KCL’s Institute of Gerontology. That relationship is still strong today.

Not many people will know that Anthea had a big influence on our sector. As principal researcher at the then DoE (now MHCLG), she focused on housing for older people, long before the Lifetime Home, Lifetime Neighbourhoods report, or APPG HAPPI inquiries. She also led teams that undertook the background research for the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care. 20+ years on, both influential areas of policy development and forerunners to the recent Older People’s Housing Taskforce and the current Casey Commission.  

Anthea was also well known to the Housing LIN’s CEO, Jeremy Porteus. He writes:

“Anthea had a great impact on my professional development as an early career professional at Anchor Trust and then the Department of Health. And, when I founded the Housing LIN, she gave me encouragement to plug the gap between research, policy and practice. She saw the value of our networks. However, Anthea was also a family friend. She babysat for me when I was a young child and perhaps her own areas of academic interest and policy formation rubbed off on me before I even knew it. I will miss her insight, friendship and sparkle!”