What about the other 95%?

Housing LIN Viewpoint no 45 - At a recent seminar about housing for older people, it was mentioned that the amount of specialist housing for older people was about 5% or less. This means that 95% of the population of older people who are ageing at the same time, are being encouraged to remain in their family homes for the rest of their lives, the majority of whom are owner occupiers with no mortgage. Is this a sensible and sustainable policy?

This Viewpoint from the Elderflowers Projects Co Ltd suggests that a new type of housing should be provided for people to move into at an earlier stage, in their early fifties, when they are working and their families are becoming smaller. This implies a different kind of housing, for people who are working and independent. It has to be sufficiently attractive to draw them out of their family sized homes into smaller custom built dwellings, centrally located, and self-managed.

Seven years on from this Viewpoint the Elderflowers project conducted a survey of Wolverton and New Bradwell residents to ascertain whether local residents over the age of 50 were intending to move to more suitable accommodation as they aged, or not. The findings can be viewed below.