HLINks Weekly: Housing, Health, and Social Care Latest News

Resource Roundup

C2 or C3? Why This Planning Grey Area Still Confuses Everyone and Why It Matters for Housing and Affordability

In Housing LIN Viewpoint no. 115, Ifti Maniar, Director of Planning at WWA, argues that outdated, inconsistently applied C2/C3 planning rules obstruct specialist housing delivery.

Ifti highlights rising later-living demand, council and court confusion, and impacts on supply, affordability and viability, calling for reform and standardised planning.

• Read this Viewpoint

Housing LIN's 2024-25 Year in Review

We’re excited to share Housing LIN’s 2024–25 Year in Review, celebrating a year of progress, collaboration and impact across housing, health and social care!

This report highlights the people, ideas and resources improving housing for our ageing population, people with learning disabilities and autistic people. 

Discover the stories, insights and achievements that shaped our year and hear directly from our CEO in his welcome message.

• Read Housing LIN's 2024-25 Year in Review

HAPPI Awareness Week highlights the power of care-ready, age-friendly design

Last week, we were pleased to mark HAPPI Awareness Week, celebrating care-ready, age-friendly housing and services.

Launched by Housing LIN in 2020, the week highlighted the HAPPI principles, first established 16 years ago by the Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation and chaired by Lord Best, which continue to shape adaptable, attractive and sustainable homes for later life.

• Review all HAPPI resources

HAPPI Hour recording - Designing for tomorrow: Future-proof, age-friendly homes

Last week, we hosted our final HAPPI Hour webinar of 2025, marking the end of HAPPI Awareness Week. Co-chaired by Lord Best and Jeremy Porteus, it explored age-friendly housing through design, collaboration and lived experience, revisiting HAPPI principles and sharing insights from architects, residents, practitioners and researchers.

• Watch here

All HAPPI Hour webinars from 2025 and beyond

This year, we’ve been fortunate to host a series of truly insightful and thought-provoking HAPPI Hour webinars. Altogether, we’ve presented 23 webinars, featuring 85 speakers and welcoming 4300+ delegates who joined us live most Tuesday afternoons. We sincerely thank our loyal regular attendees, as well as the many new participants we’ve had the pleasure of meeting each week.

Beyond these, we facilitated important conversations on topics such as dementia-friendly design, data and AI, community-led housing, almshouses reimaged, diversity in housing, and much more! We’re thrilled to share recordings of all sessions, along with slides, chat transcripts, and feedback from each webinar.

• Watch all HAPPI Hour recordings here

News Highlights

National Policy Planning Framework proposes reforms to the planning system

Last week, the government published a consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework.

It proposes wide-ranging reforms clustered around 12 policy objectives, including stronger support for rural social and affordable housing, and setting clearer expectations for accessible housing to meet the needs of older and disabled people.

The deadline for submissions is 10 March 2026.

• Have your say

Socrates seeks views on priority areas for social care rapid evaluation

At Socrates – the NIHR Social Care Rapid Evaluation Team – they are updating their list of priority areas for rapid evaluation. They would value your advice, so that their funder can have an up-to-date picture of important areas of practice to focus on in the next two years. 

Please share your views by January, 18th 2026.

• Share your views

Housing LIN celebrates the festive season!

Last week, the Housing LIN team came together for a festive roast dinner at The Ostrich Pub in Bristol.

The gathering was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past year, look ahead to the year to come, and enjoy a fun game of White Elephant over festive drinks! 

• Meet the team

Expert Insights

Moving into sheltered accommodation - A first-hand account

In this new Housing LIN guest blog, Fiona McLeod, former Health Visitor and Department of Health Change Agent, reflects on choosing sheltered accommodation.

Blending professional insight and lived experience, she explores independence, HAPPI-inspired design, moving challenges, and the reassurance of well-designed housing.

• Read Fiona's blog

Why affordable housing must include plans for later living

In this new Housing LIN guest blog, Abbey Oakley, Head of Later Living and Supported Housing at Orbit, highlights how the need for more suitable housing for older adults is often absent from the current national discussion around the push to build more affordable housing.

She argues that meeting health and care pressures requires embedding housing within development strategies.

• Read Abbey's blog

What else caught our interest...

• ADASS paper: Caring together: a joint vision for the future of cooperation between adult social care and the NHS
• Centre for Local Economic Strategies essay: Integrated care systems and strategic authorities: Coming together to tackle health inequalities and the wider determinants of health
• Cogent Gerontology article: Who knows about the origins of the age-friendly cities and communities' topics? A critical analysis of the development process by the World Health Organization and a roadmap for an overhaul
• Department of Health and Social Care paper: Adult social care priorities for local authorities: 2026 to 2027
• Foundations award winners: National Healthy Housing Awards 2025 - Winners Revealed!
• Holyrood news article: Care in the cloud: How technology is changing the face of care
• Inside Housing article: 2026: the year retirement housing steps out of the shadows  
• Kinship Works working paper: Rewilding Civic Life 
• The Almhouse Association: BBC Radio London: Nick Phillips on almshouses and London’s housing crisis

A quick save-the-date announcement…

We are delighted to invite you to Housing LIN’s Annual Conference 2026 – Shaping homes for health, independence and connection, which will take place at the Crowne Plaza Newcastle (24 February 2026) and We The Curious in Bristol (12 March 2026).

Registration opens in the New Year. Watch this space!

 

Want to know what we're working on at Housing LIN?

From cutting-edge research with universities to creating tools that shape organisational policy and practice, we’re driving innovation in the sector. Find out more!

We also offer tailored support to help you navigate today’s complex challenges, whether strategic or operational.

Let’s work together! Please email us at consultancy@housinglin.org.uk or explore our award-winning Research and Advisory Services to learn more.

Season's Greetings from all of us at the Housing LIN!