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MPs: ministers must focus more on older people's housing
Ministers must stop focusing “exclusively” on young first-time buyers and increase the supply of older people’s housing to free up family homes, a report has said.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing and Care for Older People has today published a report looking at ways of stimulating both demand for, and supply of, homes for older people.
The report, the latest in the APPG’s Housing Our Ageing Population: Positive Ideas series, makes a number of recommendations to ministers and the sector. It cites work previously commissioned by the APPG showing eight million people over the age of 60 are interested in downsizing.
Lord Richard Best, chair of the APPG, said: “[The] government gets multiple benefits from supporting older people to better enjoy health and well-being in new homes, from saving NHS and social care spending and from freeing up family homes for the next generation.”
The report calls on ministers to provide Help to Buy assistance to older homebuyers, and for a boost to government funding for affordable retirement homes to rent. It argues that exempting people over pension age from stamp duty would benefit the government by freeing up a larger home and prompting a chain of house moves.
It calls on councils to ensure Local Plans give priority to older people’s needs and for retirement housing to be exempt from Starter Homes requirements. The report recommends developers offer longer leases to incentivise moves by providing security. A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson said the department will study the report with interest.
HAPPI 3 REPORT: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
- Ministers to exempt older people from stamp duty when downsizing
- Help to Buy-style assistance for older people buying new properties
- Government to ensure policies for rent regulation and housing benefit control do not deter investment in specialist housing for older people
- The Homes and Communities Agency and Greater London Authority to boost investment in affordable retirement accommodation for rent
- Councils to ensure Local Plans give priority to older people’s housing needs
- Retirement housing should be exempt from Starter Homes obligations
- Developers recommended to offer 999 or 1,000-year leases
- Department for Work and Pensions to ensure benefit changes don’t deter investment in supported housing
- Chartered Institute of Housing and National Housing Federation to be ‘advocates’ for older people’s housing
- Housing associations to assist with co-housing custom building
