THE NATIONAL HOUSING FEDERATION HAS WELCOMED THE GOVERNMENT’S FLAGSHIP STRATEGY FOR HOUSING IN AN AGEING SOCIETY BUT THERE ARE FEARS IT MAY FAIL TO MEET ITS ASPIRATIONS BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CLEAR COMMITMENTS TO ACTION BACKED BY THE NECESSARY RESOURCES.
The strategy Lifetime homes: Lifetime Neighbourhoods calls for more homes that can be easily adapted to respond to changes in individual circumstances – and promises that by 2011 all new homes built by housing associations will meet these standards.
The Federation agrees it is essential that general housing provision meets the needs of an ageing society through better planning, design and quality, with reference to both internal and external space. Good design needs to be “hard wired” into developments at the earliest stage possible to minimise additional costs associated with the improved standards. The Federation supported the inclusion of the Lifetime Homes Standard in the Code for Sustainable Homes but wants private developers to be required to meet the same timetable through building regulations.
Although housing associations will be building homes to Lifetime standards by 2011, it will be another two years before people who buy from private developers, who build two thirds of new homes, get the benefits of these new standards. Even then, adoption of lifetime homes remains “aspirational” with no firm commitment to make the standards mandatory through building regulations. The Federation believes there is much to commend in most of the Government’s strategy, particularly its emphasis on early intervention to prevent problems mounting up in the future, and the extension of services, such as handy persons schemes across the country.
The strategy endorses the key role of specialist housing – recognising that one in four older people will choose to use this at some point in their lives – and makes pledges to improve and further develop the range of options available.
