How can local planning authorities engage better with the housing needs of an ageing society?

Housing LIN viewpoint no 58 sets out how local authority planners can work within the reformed planning system to improve the amount and types of housing for older people. The potential gains of meeting the increasing demand for housing for older people are significant: good health for longer, lower costs to the public purse, more cohesive communities and a better functioning housing market, to name a few.

Planners can better integrate information on older people's housing needs into their own plans through more explicit links to joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) and joint health and wellbeing strategies. They can align policy with this information to create a spatial framework and vision that includes older people's housing. And they can collaborate with housing and health colleagues to devise the best ways locally to deliver this framework.