Editor: Postcode lotteries have almost been accepted as a way of life, affecting schools, healthcare and even insurance. Having an impact on us all from birth, this lottery is ever present, stretching all the way to our retirement.
According to Knight Frank data, since 2010, 15 times more private retirement housing units have been built in the South East of England than the North East. This presents a stark tale of the imbalance of retirement housing provision across the country.
This is not for a lack of demand. In the next 25 years, the number of people in England older than 85 will double to 2.6 million. Our population is ageing, yet in some parts of the country we are not building nearly enough of the much-needed housing that supports people’s changing needs and enables them to continue living independently as they get older.
Retirement housing generates numerous benefits, not just for those living there but also the communities in which they are a part. From saving money on health and social care services to releasing secondhand, family-sized homes and increasing high street footfall, retirement housing is good for all of us.
If we want more of this type of housing, radical changes are needed. There are many ways to do this, but the best place to start is with our broken planning system.
For a start, local authorities should be compelled to calculate, monitor and predict the age profile of their communities, making the future level of need clear and acting to meet it.
In addition, we would like to see a simple amendment to the NPPG, confirming that retirement housing developments are exempt from affordable housing and the CIL. That would level the playing field at the point of land acquisition, where we so often lose sites to other use classes that do not have to meet these extra costs.
The creation of the government’s new taskforce on Housing for Older People is a welcome step forward and its inclusion within the levelling up agenda underlines just how much work needs to be done to deliver more choice in later-life housing throughout the UK.
Gary Day, land, design and planning director, Churchill Retirement Living
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