A new report by the influential All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing and Care for Older People attempts to quantify the challenge we face in rescuing this legacy housing stock, and offers guidance, case studies and evaluations of different approaches to regenerating older sheltered housing schemes to ensure that they continue to contribute to meeting our growing need for specialist older people’s housing.
The APPG makes 3 main recommendations:
1. The continuing value of sheltered housing should be recognised and the loss of any existing accommodation should be avoided, despite financial constraints.
2. A significant proportion of sheltered housing should be refurbished/regenerated; attractive and contemporary sheltered housing can enable down-sizing/right-sizing that allows families to obtain much-needed homes – including vacated ‘general needs’ social rented properties.
3. As far as practically possible, the re-design of sheltered housing should be consistent with “HAPPI” (Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation)4 design principles; should align with today’s energy efficiency standards, address decarbonisation commitments, be technology-enabled, and provide ‘care-ready’ homes.
EAC’s public-facing website HousingCare.org includes profiles of all UK sheltered housing schemes, and housing providers are encouraged to ensure that the information we show is accurate and informative.
