Ready for Ageing?

The House of Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change published its report on the UK's ageing society in March 2013. The report gave a stark warning that the country is 'woefully unprepared' for the changes to come.

On housing (Annex 16), it points out that a better health and social care system to support people to stay living independently needs adequate housing and support in the home. It recognises that the work done by housing adaptation and repair charities needs to become universal and that the housing market is delivering much less specialist housing for older people than is needed. It calls for central and local government, housing associations and house builders need urgently to plan how to ensure that the housing needs of the older population are better addressed and to give as much priority to promoting an adequate market and social housing for older people as is given to housing for younger people.

In September 2016, 3 and half years on from the original report, an alliance of organisations published, 'Still not Ready for Ageing' (opens new window). It argues that Government action on tackling the challenges and maximising the opportunities of ageing has stalled.

In relation to housing, it states that there is a huge undersupply of retirement housing. New mainstream housing is, in the main, not being built to Lifetime Homes Standards, and older people are not being adequately supported to adapt their own homes. Significant numbers of older people live in housing officially classified as 'unfit'.