The slides from the second in a series of three seminars from ILC-UK and Age UK on Community Matters - are our communities ready for ageing? Full details here: http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/index.php/events/community_matters_are_our_communities_ready_for_ageing._at_home

1. Community Matters – are our
communities ready for ageing?
Seminar 2: ‘At home’
Thursday 27th March
#communitymatters

2. Malcolm Dean
#communitymatters

3. Joe Oldman
Housing Policy Adviser
Age UK
#communitymatters

4. Jessica Watson
Policy and Communications Manager
ILC-UK
#communitymatters

5. Professor Sheila Peace
Professor of Social Gerontology
Open University
#communitymatters

6. Community Matters : are our
communities ready for ageing: At home’
Comment from Sheila Peace Professor of Social
Gerontology, The Open University
ILC-UK/AgeUK Community Matters
Series, Thursday March 27th

7. Key evidence points
• The older population spans 40-50 years of living with
different needs over time – third and fourth ages
debate
• Lifestyle changes – increase in older coupledom;
women living alone
• Home ownership currently central to discussion of
financial assets in later life and within families
• Maintaining the home a central concern, triggers to
change
• Recognise home and gender invisible in adult housing,
health, social care policy

8. Gaps in research and policy
• Home-sharing – intergenerational; non-familial; Home-
caring – a growing industry; understanding relationships
• Supported Care & Repair – impact of knowing the
builders, the gardeners, decorators.
• The good things about renting in all housing types
• Age-segregation/age-integration – the balance between
communal and individualised living
• ‘Staying put’ through technological development -
beyond the microwave and telecare?

9. Things to do to fix some of these issues
• Re-think access to Disabled
Facilities Grants if adaptations
cost more than £1000
• Encourage Estate Agents
through training to know about
alternative housing across the
life course
• Lobby for better terms of
employment for home carers
e.g. Travel payment
• Intergenerational interaction
based on trust - ways to
encourage more older people
into schools - could lead to
gardening, decoration
assistance, home-sharing
• Support RIBA/Design Council
in discussing more inclusive
design and recognition of
change with age. Start up costs
for more innovative housing.

10. Sue Adams
Chief Executive
Care and Repair
#communitymatters

11. Are communities ready to enable
active ageing at home?
Sue Adams, CEO, Care & Repair England

12. Who?
 Care & Repair England; national housing charity aims to
address poor and unsuitable housing conditions amongst
older population, particularly low income home owners
(since 1986)
 Pioneers local initiatives; local Care & Repair
services, Minor works grants, Handyperson, Housing
Options, Healthy Homes, Older People’s “Housing Activism”
 Policy shaping: Older people’s housing

13. Ageing well at home
 Older people’s homes
and neighbourhoods are
a major determinant of
their mental and physical
health & well-being
 Hence critical to enabling
aspiration to age well at
home

14. Heath, housing and care: ‘The triangle of independence’
14
Enabling
housing
& environment
Good
health
Social
networks
and care
Independent
older
person
Services in one area fail the person if other parts missing
Evidence on key reasons
for loss of independence
are inter-action between
health, social, housing
Multi-disciplinary
approach more
successful. Housing
often missing link

15. Where do older people actually live?
→ 7m older households
(500,000 specialist units)
→ 30% of all homes lived in by older people
→ 90% live in mainstream housing stock
(6% sheltered/ retirement, 4% residential/ nursing/ other)
→ 75% owner occupation
(specialist housing = 80% social rented/20% private)

16. Where do most want to live?
 Aspiration to live independently in a home of their
own choosing for as long as possible
 Want choice and a variety of housing options for all
stages of later life
 older people are all individuals at many life stages,
 not a homogeneous group, span half a century 50-100+yrs
 Need flexibility in homes to accommodate as much of the
variation/ fluctuation of later life experience as possible

17. Research: What makes a good place to live?
 Good design of the home :
Adaptability, flexibility, spa
ce standards
 Location: Neighbourhood
accessibility/ features
, transport, shops, services,
social
opportunities, proximity to
family &
friends, safety, security, out
door space

18. Research: What makes a good place to live?
 Access to services:
to practical support
for daily living at
home
 Wider social
factors:
history, identity, sta
tus

19. Conjecture: Older people tomorrow
 Building for the future
What will tomorrow’s aspirations be?
 Higher? Expect more choice? Technological?
 Learn from past mistakes in design of sheltered housing
bedsits and small one bed flats
 Even more reason to build in greater flexibility
Current counter pressures: Building even smaller, un-
adaptable living spaces / welfare reform & ‘under-
occupation’, planning and Building Regs reform

20. Data
 Projected household growth
→ Between 2008 and 2033 around 60% of
projected household growth will be made up of
households with someone aged 65 or older
Projected population growth
→ number of 85+ doubles & 69% of this age
group have disability/ long term health condition/
dementia

21. Is our housing ready for ageing?
 28% of older
people live in non-
decent homes
 1million
vulnerable older
people (75+) in
non-decent
housing, mostly in
the owner
occupied sector
- Major inequalities

22. Is our housing ready for ageing?
 1.4 million individuals have a medical condition or
disability that means that they need specially
adapted accommodation: 22% consider their
current home unsuitable (SEH)
 Based on current population projections, by 2036
around 810,000 people 75yrs + would be living in
unsuitable homes (70%+ in owner-occupied
properties)
C&RE, Time to Adapt

23. Cold Homes
The Marmot Review team special report on cold homes
and health concluded that there is a strong
relationship between cold temperatures and cardio-
vascular and respiratory diseases.
It noted that cold housing;
 increases the level of minor illnesses such as colds / flu
 exacerbates existing conditions such as arthritis and
rheumatism
 negatively affected mental health
 is related to excess winter deaths

24. Practical Solutions
Current housing
 increased help with
home adaptations
 ‘handyperson’ services
to do small tasks
 expand home
improvement agencies

25. Main Solutions
Future homes -
 Build all new homes to
Lifetime Homes
Standards*
 Design Lifetime
Neighbourhoods
*Applied in London to
all new homes but not
a national
requirement
www.lifetimehomes.org.uk

26. Solutions
 Stimulate better, more
varied specialist
provision – positive
choice
 Need
independent, impartial
information & advice
about housing and care
options /finance
 Empower OP as informed
consumers – FirstStop
www.firststopcareadvice.org.uk

27. Better Homes = Healthier People
 Examples:
Philanthropic
Garden
Villages/
Garden Cities
 Results:
Healthy, sociable
places to live =
better health

28. Active Ageing at Home to underpin policies
Need ethos, vision and shared values across
government
 Enable older people to live well at home
 Create places which
 enable older people to remain active and socially engaged
 enhance independence, health and quality of life
Need acknowledgement that ‘home’ is more than
bricks and mortar

29. Looking forward together
 Support a
positive, active ageing
vision and ethos to
underpin planning
 Share information &
evidence to build the
economic case
It is all our futures…..

30. Contact and Links
sueadams@careandrepair-england.org.uk
Housing & Ageing Alliance:
www.housinglin.org.uk/AboutHousingLIN/HAA/

31. Paul Gamble
CEO
Habinteg Housing Association
#communitymatters

32. Why accessible housing counts
Paul Gamble, CEO Habinteg
For ILC conference: ‘Community Matters: are our
communities ready for ageing: At home’.

33. What’s special about housing?
1200 year replacement cycle (based on construction
rates in 2007)
2012 - @100K housing built
Best estimates 230k a year needed
UK demographic trend that UK set to have largest
population in Europe by 2050 c.70m+
Affordability crisis
33

34. Where will they all live?
2001 census
showed that
specialist housing
accounted for less
than 3% overall
Updated estimates
don’t exceed 6%
Most older people
will remain in
mainstream
housing
34

35. Housing sector responses to ageing
Segmentation
extra care
retirement villages
co-housing
HAPPI
Inclusive design
35

36. Inclusive design
Carrot and stick
Helen Hamlyn Foundation
Livability/Lifemark – AU and NZ
Lifetime Homes
Standards
Regulation
But clear evidence that regulation uderpins change
36

37. The benefits of accessible living #1
Reduced risk of
falls and injury –
Reduce NHS bill
by building to LTH
or similar rather
than Part M.
(Hip fractures
alone cost £726m
in 2000.)
37

38. The benefits of accessible living #2
adaptability–
• more quickly
• more safely
• Saving NHS
£260 per day.
38

39. The benefits of accessible living #3
Postpone or avoid
moving to
residential care -
Cost saving of
£700-800 per week
– to family or social
care budget
39

40. ‘Cost’of standards vs long term value
40

41. Finally: much potential in the
review, but…
• Building standards should benefit
consumer, householder, community, society - will
they?
• We need the right standards, consistently applied
with robust enforcement to make the difference
• Ongoing monitoring, research and development is
essential if we’re to keep pace with changing
needs – especially at higher end of access.
41

42. pgamble@habinteg.org.uk
www.habinteg.org.uk/responses

43. Q&A and Open Discussion
#communitymatters

44. Break
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45. Open Discussion
#communitymatters