ROOF Blog

Older people should be offered accommodation in bright, purpose-built communities instead of the shabby and cramped care homes where many now reside, according to a new report.

The provision of desirable retirement homes would encourage pensioners to sell their current properties, giving young families a greater chance of raising their children in suburban homes with gardens, it says.

The Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) was commissioned by Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health to come up with creative proposals to improve housing for older people.

After visiting ‘model’ retirement communities in European countries including Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden it has called for a local authorities and housebuilders to radically rethink their approach to elderly accommodation.

The best developments all had ‘space, light, accessibility and a shared sense of purpose’, with large communal areas where residents could socialise, it found.

The panel said there was no reason why homes in the UK could not be architecturally interesting and built in desirable neighbourhoods.

Nearly one in three Britons is planning to fund their retirement with inheritance, Friends Provident research has found. More than half of those questioned admitted to being unprepared for retirement with 31 per cent believing inherited money and property will help them. And although only 14 per cent of adults have discussed how much they may receive, the average people expect to get is £64,000.

Pensioners have seen an average of £52,000 wiped off the value of their homes during the credit crunch. A report from propertyfinder.com shows that, overall, pensioners have seen their wealth drop by £220 billion, bringing the total value of property they own in England and Wales down to £800 billion. As many as 1.7 million pensioners – nearly 14 per cent – rely on property to fund their retirement, with many expecting to downsize and use the spare cash to pay for care costs.

Companies in the UK can continue to force employees to retire at 65 without breaking EU rules the European Court of Justice ruled. The court backed the compulsory retirement age as long as it has a ‘legitimate aim’ and was related to ‘employment policy, the labour market or vocational training’. The case must now return to the High Court which will have to decide whether the aims of the government’s retirement age are legitimate. Age Concern, which took the case to court, is calling for an end to the default age saying it sends out mixed messages and argues that the government now has to ‘prove’ why forced retirement ages are needed.

New research by Help the Aged has found that over the next three years a third of sheltered housing schemes will lose their on-site warden and have them replaced with a floating service. The report also outlined the accelerating decline in the availability of sheltered accommodation, which has fallen by 4 per cent in the past five years and is predicted to fall a further 7 per cent in the next three years. Currently around 7 per cent of the retired population lives in sheltered and retirement housing, and the government is planning on removing the ring-fence on funding.

Meanwhile more than a third of Britons will have to work beyond the traditional retirement age to maintain their lifestyles. According to research by a pension company, one in ten do not think they have enough saved up to last them beyond the age of 70 and of those aged over 55, almost half, 47 per cent, are already planning to work part-time. The problem has been exacerbated by falling house prices as 1.7 million pensioners are relying on property to fund their old age.