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Older People’s Housing Taskforce – A progress update

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The Secretariat to the Older People’s Housing Taskforce has produced a progress update highlighting key activities since its launch by Ministers on 16 May 2023.  It sets outs the scope of the Taskforce, visits and events undertaken and also issues a reminder to take part in the call for evidence which closes on Monday, 18 September 2023.

The full update is:

This independent Taskforce, led by Julienne Meyer (Professor Emerita of Nursing Care for Older People; City, University of London), is supported by 18 other experts. It has been asked to look at how the country can improve housing options for older people, and will make final recommendations to Government next year. 

More details can be found here (opens new window).

The Taskforce is keen to ensure that their findings are grounded in the lived experience of the people who live, and work in this sector, and they are keen to engage with as wide a range of people as possible. 

To date, Professor Meyer has met with over 80 stakeholders from across a wide cross-section of interests. Professor Meyer has also visited a number of retirement schemes including McCarthy Stone’s Runnymede Court in Worthing, Audley’s Mayfield Retirement Village in Watford, and the ExtraCare Charitable Trust’s Shenley Wood site, Milton Keynes, where she had tours of the developments and met with residents.

She has also spoken at the Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO) annual conference in July and is expected to speak at several further events over the coming months, including Laing Buisson's Retirement Housing Conference, a National Housing Federation (NHF) webinar Developing Solutions for Older People’s Housing, and a Housing Market Intelligence Conference (HMI). 

Taskforce members have also been meeting regularly, focusing on three main priorities.

  • People  - seeking to develop a deep understanding of the needs, preferences and concerns of older people, their families and carers. 
     
  • Products - examining what “good” dedicated older people’s housing should look like in future, in terms of the type of housing, the design and fabric of the home, and the application of technology.  This includes looking at consumer protection. 
     
  • Places - focused on examining how to bring together the levers and partners in local systems to make change happen at the local level. 

To inform their recommendations, in July the Taskforce launched a call for evidence to help it consider and further understand the market and older peoples’ housing needs today, and to provide recommendations to Ministers on how the market can be shaped for the future. The Taskforce are asking respondents to share any published research and work they may have previously developed. 

The call for evidence is open until Monday, 18 September 2023. You can find the call for evidence here (opens new window).

Please do contribute to the consultation if appropriate and share with your networks. The Taskforce also intends to hold a range of roundtables with selected stakeholders later this Autumn, to discuss specific issues.