Leading think tank calls for better housing options for older Londoners

Findings from a Riverstone sponsored report, ‘Third Age City: Housing For Older Londoners’, by think tank Centre for London, has found that too many older Londoners are unable to access the housing they need to live independently for longer. The report makes the case for a stronger and more coordinated approach to building homes that suit London’s diverse population of older residents.

The research found that over 65s currently have four main housing options: remaining in their current home, living with family or friends, living in a home specifically designed for older people (specialist housing) or living in a care home.  Further analysis of the figures showed that due to a chronic shortage of availability in specialist housing, many Londoners are being denied the opportunity to live independently for longer.  ‘Specialist housing’, ‘housing with care’ or ‘retirement communities’ enable people to enjoy the independence of living in their own home, whilst being able to access care services, should the need arise.

According to the figures, London is developing less than half of the new specialist homes needed overall, as land costs make other forms of housing more attractive to developers.  Inner London boroughs are only building 25 per cent of the homes required each year to reach London-wide targets. Outer London is doing better, but homes are not evenly distributed between boroughs. In some local authorities, the number of new homes is negative, as existing older people's housing is converted to other uses.

The report argues that this gap between what older people need and what is actually available is likely to continue to grow: the number of Londoners aged 65+ is expected to increase by more than a quarter (29 per cent) over the next decade. Most of this growth will be in inner London.

The report also highlights that building new homes alone will not be enough to ensure older people have a genuine choice about where they want to live.  Existing homes should be made easier to adapt and new homes should be designed with adaptations from the outset.  Riverstone is embracing this approach, focusing in detail on invisible, age-appropriate features, lots of space and tech options that reduce risk and boost the living experience.

Finding the right place to live is not only dependent on the types of homes on offer but also on people’s knowledge. Some older people the Centre spoke to said they struggled to find accurate and relevant information about different housing options.

To respond to these issues, Centre for London has made recommendations to national, city and local government:

• Every London borough should set targets for how many specialist homes should be built each year and where.
• The government should provide dedicated funding to local authorities to provide older people’s housing advice and support services.
• Local authorities and developers should ensure that new build homes are designed to be more adaptable and flexible and look to provide better choice for local people

Riverstone supports a strategy whereby greater provision of more specialist homes allows older people to have greater and better choice over how and where they want to live.  To help achieve this, Riverstone is working alongside other operators and ARCO, the main body representing the Retirement Community sector in the UK, to meet increasing demand for specialist housing.  But with baseline numbers still very low, there is significant work to be done, with support from every level of government a key part of this co-ordinated approach.