Most discussion about kick-starting housing focuses on first-time buyers. But local authorities could do much more to help older people live in homes that are suitable for their needs later in life
As an ageing society - where buying a first home has been a rite of passage for decades - we are surprisingly bashful about what kind of housing people need as they get older.
Hanover Housing has been trying to kick-start innovative thinking on this subject by inviting ten think tanks to present new ideas and perspectives around housing and ageing.
So far we have published three of these think pieces. One of these, from the Smith Institute, gives local authorities, housing commissioners and providers along with the wider public cause to think about the potential role and importance of equity release.
The next set of think pieces from the International Longevity Centre, Demos and the RSA, will appear later this month. They will also pose some challenging points for consideration and may require a re-think about how we design and provide public services.
Age-appropriate housing can save the public sector money. Older people who move early to the right kind of housing require fewer NHS and social care interventions. And, as the Smith Institute points out, housing-related health problems, such as falls, cost the NHS around £600m per year.
Last autumn, health secretary Jeremy Hunt cited research showing increased risk of heart disease and dementia amongst lonely older people, as well as less healthy lifestyles leading to earlier admission to care homes. Appropriate housing can alleviate loneliness and support a greater sense of well-being.
Policymakers and local authorities have so far largely failed to see housing as part of the prevention agenda and instead regard retirement housing just as a safe haven for those who already have significant health and social care needs.
The Smith Institute’s paper on equity release exposes a disturbing yet little discussed fact that many older people live in non-decent homes that they own but, being on low incomes, cannot afford to improve. Equity release could help a lot of low-income older homeowners fund aids and adaptations as well as other improvements to their homes. This is worth an extra focus given the fact that local authority budgets for aids and adaptations have shrunk dramatically.
Yet despite its potential, the equity release market in Britain remains tiny, scarred by a negative image arising from inappropriate products launched in the 1980s. The Smith Institute suggest that local authorities and housing associations could boost confidence by co-branding equity release products - or at least offer signposting and advice services.
The government should also remove some benefit disincentives to equity release. At present, the cash freed-up is sometimes treated as income that can result in a loss of entitlement to benefits.
As a provider of specialist housing for older people, Hanover will also need to change the way it works to meet these pressures and the changing aspirations of older people. Quite rightly, the baby boomer generation will not want to settle for second-best in the last home they live in. We want to work with partners across the public sector and beyond to make this a reality.
Choosing our final home should be as much of a positive rite of passage as the aspiration that many still have to buy their first home.
Bruce Moore is chief executive of Hanover Housing. The Hanover@50 Debate papers are available at http://www.hanover50debate.org.uk/
