Plans to address the housing needs of an ageing population were outlined in a new Housing Corporation strategy.
Over the next 30 years, the population of people in England aged 65 years or more is projected to increase by 70% - from 9.7 million to 16.5 million. The number of people aged 85 or older will increase by 149%.
Investing in Lifetimes reinforces the messages in the Government’s strategy "Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods".
Baroness Andrews, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, said,
"The majority of older people in social housing live in general needs housing, which can prove difficult to adapt as we age and our experiences and needs change.
I warmly welcome the Corporation's encouragement of all associations to consider how they will meet the needs of their current and future residents as they age."
The strategy also aims to allocate a proportion of the annual capital funding programme to housing that benefits older people. The Corporation has provided £125 million of capital funding for specialist housing for older people as part of the first round of funding from the 2008-11 NAHP.
The Corporation will also identify and promote best practice models and new ideas for the provision of housing, care and support for older people.
Housing Corporation Chairman, Peter Dixon said,
"The Housing Corporation has consistently encouraged housing associations to take a role in enabling independence, choice and control at home for older people, supporting their needs with coherent preventative services, including information, advice and advocacy and housing options.
This strategy statement is a continuation of this approach and is an important contribution in shaping policy and delivery for the future, providing a strong foundation and legacy on which the Homes and Communities Agency and Oftenant can build."
Thomas Pocklington Trust, in association with Habinteg Housing Association, launched a new design guide for developing housing for people with sight loss.
Entitled Housing for people with sight loss - A Thomas Pocklington Trust design guide, it details over a hundred ways that good housing design can improve the lives of people with poor sight. Written in conjunction with Habinteg, it is the first comprehensive guidance to draw on extensive research with visually impaired people.
The guide is aimed at all those involved in providing accommodation services to people experiencing sight loss, including registered social landlords, architects, building technicians, and groups who provide support services to those with visual impairment.
While few people are completely blind, some two million in the UK have sight loss that affects their everyday life. In addition, there are 13 million over the age of 60, many of whose sight has diminished through the inevitable effects of ageing.
Current Government guidelines for "Lifetime Homes" housing that helps people adapt as they age seek to ease the problems of physical disability, such as the use of wheelchairs, but sensory disabilities are largely left out. The Pocklington Design Guide helps to fill that gap with practical recommendations for designing better homes for coping with sight loss.
During five years research, Pocklington sought the views of those living with impaired sight. The research revealed that housing design can throw up barriers for these people, make them feel excluded from their communities and introduce potential hazards into their homes.
Cooking and domestic tasks were found to be particularly difficult, with very small work surfaces, and potential dangers of badly appointed cupboards identified as problematic. In terms of layout and design, interviewees were most concerned about accessibility of spaces, problems with doors, changes of lighting and features of security and safety. The Design Guide translates those concerns into a range of design choices that will maximise vision and minimise barriers to everyday tasks.
The Guide illustrates how, if applied at an early design stage, many important details can be implemented with little or no additional cost. They can be applied to houses being built or in the planning stage.
Lighting in particular is an area which offers major improvements to well-being and enjoyment of life. The Guide contains the first comprehensive look at the effects of lighting on maximising vision. It specifies types and position of lighting as well as how to reduce glare and how to make lights adaptable to suit inevitable changes in eyesight as people age.
A 60-year-old needs three times more light than a 20 year-old to carry out basic tasks, so many over-60s struggle with daily tasks simply for the sake of the wrong lighting. As the population ages this problem is set to increase.
Flexibility of lighting is just one of the small design choices shown in the Guide as having massive potential to improve the lives of millions of people - yet it, and other choices are often overlooked. Many older people, for example, find it increasingly difficult to adapt quickly to changes in brightness, yet some popular modern lighting creates areas of brightness and shade, thus making their problems with vision even worse.
The Guide is available from IHS BRE Press - Tel: 01344 328038.
