1. A fresh commitment to housing for older people
Terrie Alafat CBE
Director of Housing
18 February 2014

2. Older people’s housing - context
60% of projected increase in households from 2008 to 2033 will be headed by someone 65+
Where do older people currently live:
7.3 million older (no one under 55) households in England live in mainstream or specialist housing
18% of older households are housing association or council tenants
6% of older households are private sector tenants
76% of older households owner-occupiers

3. Specialist housing - context
Currently around 5% of older households live in specialist housing
Estimated around 500,000 units with approximately:
100,000 private sector
400,000 in public sector
This breaks down roughly into:
75% social rented
25% private leaseholds
negligible number of private rents to date

4. Current supply and demand
Demographic change is shaping demand for housing choices
Estimated gap of up to 45,000 units a year for people with support needs
Some demand met through adaptation, floating support and existing affordable homes programme
Around 6 million older people would consider moving to more suitable housing
Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates around £1 trillion of un-mortgaged equity held by older households
Provides opportunity for older households to support move to more suitable housing or fund adaptations to enable them to remain at home

5. Choice
Limited choice for older households moving to accommodate support needs
Around 70% of private supply is from one provider
Moving to specialist retirement housing can improve quality of life – both physical health and social well-being
Broadly three types of movers:
lifestyle movers - typically younger, seeking a better quality of life
planners - typically middle age range move before they need to
crisis movers - frequently older and often move because of accident or ill-health
In only 1.7% of households over 65 had moved within the last year

6. Government approach Government has adopted a three strand approach :
providing support to people who wish to stay in their home
ensuring the right advice is available
strengthening choice for those who want to consider moving
Additionally, more cross-government working to bring together interests in housing, care, health and welfare

7. Better integration Care Bill Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund
positions housing more centrally to provision of care
duty on authorities to integrate services - eg housing with health
Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund
£315 million from Department of Health for development of specialist housing
HCA and GLA delivering more than 3000 affordable homes in phase 1
Better Care Fund
£3.8 billion investment for more integration of health and social care
will deliver better outcomes for less money and drive forward integration

8. Still more to do
Approach to housing for older people needs some fresh thinking
Challenges remain, but not just for Government – sector must engage
Kick-started by Ministers with 2 roundtable meetings
Brought together DCLG, DH, and DWP and members of the House of Lords
Sector representatives – many of who are here today
Good basis to begin exploring issues and barriers with experts

9. Good practice
Learning from and building on good practice we know exists
Housing Minister already interested in number of projects including:
Sunderland City Council facilitating development of non-grant funded extra care housing
Extra Care Charitable Trust mixed tenure retirement villages and developments
face to face advice and support provided through FirstStop local partners
home improvement agencies & other organisations providing adaptations, falls prevention, hospital discharge service, handypersons scheme

10. What next?
DCLG is tendering for a project on older people’s housing consisting of:
research to provide a package of evidence
policy development exercise
Great opportunity for the sector to contribute
Use your knowledge and experience to help shape and inform the project as it develops
Find out more ing my team via

11. In conclusion
Aware that there’s still more to do at a challenging time
Need to ensure variety of housing and support options for older people
Must work to remove barriers and find new solutions
Working together we can make a real difference
Help older people to live independently, where they choose with quality of life and dignity