Why aren’t we making progress on later-living accommodation?

The Older People’s Housing Taskforce was formed to address the lack of suitable, accessible and affordable housing options for older people, and published a report six months ago. It is hard to understand what, if any, progress is being made.

One of the key recommendations was the need to strengthen planning policies to ensure that sufficient land is made available to support the volume of new supply needed, as well as ensuring older people’s housing is given greater priority in the creation of local plans.

The government has made a steady stream of planning announcements since coming into power, including restating housing targets and adding a specific reference to “mixed-tenure sites”, including “housing designed for specific groups such as older people’s housing” in the National Planning Policy Framework.

“The approval rate for older people’s housing schemes is 57% of all applications made, but this falls as schemes get larger, with just 45% of schemes with 120 units or more being granted planning permission”

Currently, only 36% of local plans in England have a specific policy for later living. While this nod to the need for greater provision of suitable housing for older people is positive, it is not necessarily going to drive a large enough step change in delivery.

The taskforce analysed the number of schemes being approved or rejected at planning. It found that the approval rate for older people’s housing schemes is 57% of all applications made, but this falls as schemes get larger, with just 45% of schemes with 120 units or more being granted planning permission.

This is a particular challenge for later-living schemes, where larger projects are often necessary, as the number of operational services required makes them unviable unless certain economies of scale are achieved.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Commons, includes proposals to introduce mandatory training for local councillors, whereby they will need to receive a certificate to sit on planning committees. An essential part of this training needs to be ensuring that local councillors have a thorough understanding of the need for mixed-tenure sites and the demand for different types of housing.

Historically, schemes for older people’s housing have come forward on unallocated green belt sites, as it cannot compete for greenfield allocations on the same basis as open market housing. The government’s redesignation of some green belt land to grey belt may improve the chances of older people’s housing schemes being approved.

“An essential part of training needs to be ensuring that local councillors have a thorough understanding of the need for mixed-tenure sites and the demand for different types of housing”

Fundamentally, though, significant challenges remain in delivering a suitable quantity and range of housing options for later life. While the taskforce identified several levers that could be pulled to remedy the rate of delivery, there is no quick solution.

Without a standardised methodology for local assessment and specific allocations within local plans, there will continue to be a severe undersupply of suitable homes. This shortage affects the supply of housing in the market (as older people stay put in larger family homes), affects individuals’ mental and physical well-being, and puts pressure on the UK’s health system.

The only silver lining is that the fundamentals are becoming more attractive to investors and lenders into the market. These market forces should combine with the planning levers to accelerate delivery.

Amy France, head of later living, and Victoria Du Croz, head of planning, Forsters