Housing white paper to incentivise building of sheltered accommodation to encourage older people to sell large houses
Theresa May’s government will use its flagship housing strategy to make it easier for older people to move into smaller homes, in a move that could free up larger properties for families.
A policy to incentivise more quality, newly built sheltered accommodation will be included in a white paper, which also aims to break the dominance of a limited number of large housebuilders.
Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, admitted that the white paper would include something on incentives for older people to sell big family homes.
“First of all, we’ve got a lot of demographic change in the country and an increasing elderly population, so it’s not just about how many houses you build, but are you building the right kind of houses,” he told ITV’s Robert Peston.
He agreed that this would mean more sheltered housing schemes, arguing that “if we can make it easier for elderly people to move into that kind of accommodation, it releases family homes that we’re desperate [for]”.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government insisted it was not about pushing anyone out of their home, but providing more options.
“The white paper will explore ways to stimulate the market to deliver new homes for older people and disabled people. We want to make sure older people have a good choice of accommodation to help them to live independently for longer, and help reduce costs to social care and health systems,” he said.
Toby Lloyd, head of housing development at Shelter, said it was good to offer more sheltered accommodation, but he warned against high-spec flats for the elderly pushing out development of much-needed affordable properties.
“There is a need to encourage older people to downsize earlier and better and there are things you can do about that,” he said. “But if it comes at the expense of affordable housing then you are robbing badly housed and struggling Peter to pay well-housed and affluent Paul.”
"A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government insisted it was not about pushing anyone out of their home" We've all heard that one before!
