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Baroness Kay Andrews OBE

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Lifetime homes, lifetime neighbourhoods

Date of speech	26 February 2008
Location	Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, London
Event summary	Age Concern: The Age Agenda Conference 2008

Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

I would like to thank Age Concern for inviting me to speak today. I'm delighted - actually, I'm very proud - to be able to tell you about our housing strategy for an ageing society, Lifetime homes, lifetime neighbourhoods . Age Concern has been heavily involved in advising on the strategy, and there couldn't be a more fitting audience.

You will know that the Prime Minister actually launched the strategy yesterday - over breakfast with many of the people who have been such powerful advocates for so long. We had hoped that he would be able to launch it here - events conspired against this - but I can tell you that there is no more powerful advocate for what you have asked us to do, and what we have tried to do in the strategy, than the PM himself.

And yesterday he met people whose lives had already been changed by that extra bit of help - which we now want to expand and improve. People like an older couple from Coventry who had a simple handrail fitted by the handyperson service, which made the difference between risk and safety; and some residents of Darwin Court, which we visited afterwards to see what the best of planning and design can offer. And, of course, around the table were people like Gordon Lishman and many others who have made the difference between a high flown and unreachable strategy and a practical vision for the sort of world we all want to inhabit in the future.

When we began to develop the strategy, we set ourselves two challenges:

To look at how we can best meet the housing needs of today's older population, and
To look at what we need to do to so that we can meet the needs of the far greater numbers of older people who will make up out community in the future - and who will be living longer. It's a startling idea that 1 in every 5 children born today is predicted to live to 100.

A strategy that only answered one of these challenges would be incomplete.

And a strategy which was only about housing - or indeed only about older people's housing - would have seriously missed the opportunity to bring together housing and community plans which enable ageing in place.

So this strategy takes us into new territory. It is unique because we wanted to show that we could:

Lead the world. Although many countries in the world have an ageing population, we are the first to recognise this in terms of our housing needs and aspirations. I believe that other countries will want to follow our lead. The problem is that none of us wants to think about it. But we must. Today there are under 10 million people aged 65 and over in this country. Within 30 years, there will be over 17 million of us. Today there are under one and a quarter million people aged 85 and over, but in 30 years time, there will be over three and a half million - an increase of over 180 per cent. For our own sakes, we have to think and plan differently.
Develop a policy which enables ageing in place. That is to say, it's not about finding a niche or a niche market for older people, or about more of the same sort of specialist housing. It's about a total housing policy which reflects our aspirations and lifestyles as we grow. It's the opposite of a policy of containment - it's a policy for moving older people from the margins to the mainstream of policy.
Bring together the idea of homes that are fit for a lifetime of change with neighbourhoods which must serve people of all ages - lifetime neighbourhoods - much better than they do now.
Demonstrate the reality that housing is in the front line of health care and a vital part of the solution to keeping people well and active and cutting the costs of avoidable falls, disabilities, and ill health.
Listen and respond to what older people and their advocates have told us are their priorities today and their vision for the next generation.
Demonstrate that the whole of government is signed up to this in a way that gives us a better chance of meeting these ambitions.

Above all, it challenges the all too typical view of older people as 'old dears' - passive recipients of services. By showing the wealth and power of older people in the housing market we demonstrate that older people are an economic and social asset.

"Older people are, increasingly, driving the housing market and are likely to do so increasingly future."

Mike O'Brien talked about the cross-government Public Service Agreement on later life - a major achievement that, in a landscape of reducing targets and indicators, we have a new PSA for later life. Two of the five indicators that support this PSA are about older people's satisfaction with their home and neighbourhood; and the support older people receive to live independently. That is where we want and expect to see the real improvements this strategy will deliver.

But it's not only unique in what it aims to do, but also in the way we have worked. We have set out all the evidence we could collect from the best sources to show the impact of ageing, where older people now live and how they live, and how their lives are different today from yesterday.

We are publishing a qualitative report on older people's housing options and aspirations by the University of York. This goes some way towards answering some of the less tangible questions that the numbers and projections alone can't answer: in what ways will tomorrow's older generation be different from today's? Will they have different expectations and will they make different lifestyle choices?

In terms of expert partnership, we have, quite shamelessly, drawn on the expertise of our advisory group, the Housing and Older People Development Group. And I would like to say a special word of thanks to them for all their ideas and inspiration. We have been listening intently to service providers who work with older people, and to organisations that campaign on behalf of older people; and most of all, we have been listening to older people themselves.

But none of this could have happened if the Prime Minister had not already made it clear we must have 3 million homes built by 2020 - not just for young people who cannot get a home - but for people of all ages. That includes putting £8 billion into public housing - a 50 per cent increase - over the next three years.

So this strategy is nothing if not timely. Not least because our research shows that older people will make up nearly fifty per cent of projected growth in households over the next twenty years. In the next 20 years 75 per cent of older people will own their own homes. Older people are, increasingly, driving the housing market and are likely to do so increasingly future.

These are the critical facts that planners, developers, housing authorities all need to bear in mind. And the strategy will help focus their minds on this, and the tools that are there to help them do it.

But there are two nations in old age, and we have to do something for the older people of today as well as to set out our most ambitious vision for tomorrow. The reality is that older people often live in the worst housing conditions - over 2.1 million older households live in non-decent or hazardous housing. I know I am preaching to the converted, but many of these 'academic facts' have really come alive for me over the last year or so as we have been working on the strategy. I have been able to see first hand a number of local schemes that are making a real difference to people's lives.

So we have tried to find out from the people who know what is the right way forward - and that is why I think this strategy will work. This is what you have told us: We want…

To stay in our homes as long as possible, but to do this, we need support - a reliable repairs and adaptations service, that bit of help around the home.
Access to independent information and advice about our housing options.
Safe, accessible homes that are low-maintenance and affordable to heat.
Good space standards - so we can have family to visit, or a carer, and storage space is important too. And we need our homes to be adaptable, if we need to install a stair-lift, or a walk-in shower.
Neighbourhoods that are safe, with good access and transport links to the places we need to go to, and the places we would like to go to.
Most of all, we want to be listened to - involved in the design and delivery of everything in our homes and neighbourhoods that will affect us.

So, that is what we set out to do.

Much of what we have done is to build on the best of what works - but to give it a new framework of expectations and relevance. We are not starting from scratch. Government has already made significant investment in helping older people to maintain independent living:

£20 billion in improving social housing since 1997. As a result, social housing now has over one million fewer non-decent homes. And there are over 300,000 fewer vulnerable households living in non-decent homes in the private sector.
Since 2000, Defra's Warm Front programme has helped around 1.6 million households to improve heating and energy efficiency - just over half of Warm Front clients are over 60 years old.
The Supporting People programme, created in 2003, helps over 840,000 older people, by providing the help and support they need to live independently.
We have also invested significantly in the home improvement agency sector. In 1999 just over half of all local authorities offered a service; now, 90 per cent do so.
The Disabled Facilities Grant programme helps around 35,000 people each year to live independently in their own homes by providing adaptations. Funding for the programme has more than doubled since 1997 from £57 million to £126 million in the current year (2007-08).
And, since 2004, the Department of Health has invested £375 million in innovation in specialist housing through its Extra Care grant.
And we will continue to invest in our major programmes. We have already announced Supporting People funding of nearly £5 billion over the next three years, and Warm Front funding of over £800 million over the same period.

So, what more do we need to do to meet the needs of today's older people?

We are putting new services in place to help inform and support the best housing choice so that older people can make the right decisions at the right time and not in times of crisis or despair when the only choice is the wrong choice - whether that is residential care, moving in with a relative or whatever. That was a key message from older people - the need for impartial and independent information and advice - about whether to stay in their own home and perhaps modernise it and get help to do so; to move to somewhere more convenient; and how to make this decision alongside issues about care; or housing-related finance. We don't want anyone to have to say: "If only I had known…. I'd have done something different".

This is what we will do. We will work with partners across government, and in the voluntary and community sector, who already do some of this and who will know what is needed, to develop a national housing information and advice service which will be a first stop shop for advice on key choices, and we will strengthen local housing advice, information and 'moving home' services for older people.

A second key message was the importance of that bit of help. Little things that most of us take for granted - changing a lightbulb, fixing carpets, making minor repairs to shut out draught or deal with damp. Minor adaptations, like fixing a grab rail, can make a significant difference to being able to stay at home with confidence, or to return home from a hospital stay. For example, we can do far more this way to prevent falls - every 4-5 hours an older person falls, often resulting in hospitalisation or entry to a care home. If we could help prevent falls the savings to families in terms of stress and the nation in terms of health care bills would be fantastic.

This is what we will do. We all know that one of the best things that has happened in recent years is the handyvan services - and the handyperson. These schemes are often fostered by home improvement agencies, and organisations like Age Concern and Help the Aged. The problem is that these schemes are not universal - in many places they are patchy and inconsistent - or they fail to link up with other kinds of support and with agencies providing wider services.

For both of these reasons, the time has come to give the handyperson solution a significant boost. And that is why we have announced investment of over £30 million from next year, to help kickstart these services where they do not already exist, but even more important - to help providers improve and join up what they offer so that those older people at risk are more likely to be identified and helped - and connected to the other services which can make all the difference. We will evaluate the impact of the scheme. Longer-term, our ambition is that these enhanced services will be integrated into the mainstream.

For some people we have to do more. Many older and disabled people cannot continue to live independently at home unless the house is significantly adapted. Downstairs bathrooms, walk in showers, internal lifts are all vital but expensive changes beyond the reach of many people. The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is a god send - but now we need to modernise it so that it can reach more people, more swiftly and more effectively.

This is what we will do:

We will of course retain the mandatory nature of the DFG.
We are increasing funding in 2008 by 20 per cent raising the national budget to £146million, with further increases of £10million in each of the next two years so that by 2010 the DFG budget will be £166million - an increase of 30 per cent.
We will raise the maximum limit on DFGs to £30,000 to help those with complex disabilities for whom the current ceiling is not high enough so that more people will get help with more expensive adaptations.
We will change the rules so that the DFG will cover access into the garden - a lifeline for so many older people.
We will change the means test to help speed up the process, passporting those on certain benefits.
We will make the administration more flexible so that grants can be made more easily and more speedily.
We will relax the ring fence so that authorities can use the grant for wider purposes - which may be more appropriate for individuals - such as moving home. It will also enable authorities to deliver simplified systems to deliver smaller scale adaptations.
These are just a few of the changes we are making to the programme - a detailed response to the review is in the strategy.

We have also been looking to the future of how these services are delivered and developed to their full capacity. We see an important role for the home improvement agency sector in delivering a range of housing-related support to older and disabled people. We have therefore commissioned the national body for HIAs, Foundations, to undertake the future home improvement agency project. We want to see the sector develop as the hub around which clients exercise their choice about their home - both in supporting older people to live independently in their own home, and, where it is more appropriate, in providing the advice and support they need to move to more suitable accommodation. The project will identify good practice and share lessons within the sector and with service commissioners. It will identify how the sector can make the most of the evolving delivery landscape. We will publish the findings in the Autumn.

But we also want to make this service part of the whole preventative strategy for good health. That means new thinking and new technology. We have therefore asked the King's Fund to undertake some work to develop a method - based on routinely collected data - to identify people at risk a year before a crisis. The results (external link) were published at the end of last year. And I am delighted to say that the Department of Health will be taking this work forward, funding a pilot study with local authorities, from this year.

All that will be in place for today's older people in the next few years. But for today's and tomorrow's older people we need to future proof our homes and our neighbourhoods.

What else do we need to do to plan homes and neighbourhoods for ageing in place? This is where the second part of the strategy comes in.

We need to think and build differently for the future. As the Prime Minister recognises in his foreword to our strategy, for many people getting older means it is harder to get about the house. We do not want the family home to be an obstacle course for older people. This strategy aims to give older people more power over their own lives. We need to build much more inclusive, well-designed, and flexible housing to meet future demand in an ageing society.

In particular, we need to build homes that will be adaptable enough to match a lifetime's changing needs. We know how to do this. We already have the Lifetime Homes standards. These are simple, inexpensive features designed to make homes more flexible and functional for all. The strategy therefore sets out a direction of travel which will make sure that by 2013 all homes are built to lifetime standards. This is how we will do it.

We will ensure that all publicly funded housing is built to Lifetime Homes Standards by 2011.
We will need to inspire and support industry - to match the challenge of building differently. We will work closely with developers, Builders, architects, planners and other professionals to encourage take-up and to establish the most economic way to deliver the benefits of Lifetime Homes Standards.
Lifetime Homes Standards will be made a mandatory part of the Code for Sustainable Homes to encourage progressively increased take-up in new build projects. But we want all housing to be built to Lifetime Homes Standards by 2013 so that our homes adapt with us instead of becoming a burden.
Our plan is therefore to review take up of the standards in 2010 with a view to bringing forward regulation in 2013 if take up has not matched expectations.
To incentivise highest quality design, we will introduce a new category in the annual Housing Design Awards which recognises excellence in inclusive design.

But what is new, too, is the way that we see lifetime homes connecting with a new concept - the lifetime neighbourhood. The neighbourhood we live in is often as important to us as our home, at any age. But as we grow older, the neighbourhood becomes even more important. We spend more time at or close to home, and we are more dependent upon accessing local amenities and services. But all too often, the neighbourhood becomes a barrier to maintaining vital links with the community, and with our friends.

"A lifetime neighbourhood is welcoming, accessible and inviting for everyone, regardless of age, or health or disability."

About a third of older people leave their homes only twice a week. Seemingly trivial problems, such as poor paving or street lighting, or a lack of benches and toilets, can become significant deterrents to going out - creating real problems, but also undermining confidence and health. Mobility often determines quality of life. That is why neighbourhoods which are attractive and accessible encourage people to stay mobile.

We are familiar with the need to design our communities to meet the environmental challenges they will face. It is equally important that our communities are sustainable in terms of the changing population that will live in them. A lifetime neighbourhood is welcoming, accessible and inviting for everyone, regardless of age, or health or disability. The idea is similar to the WHO's work on Age-Friendly Cities. Last November, my Department and the ILC-UK published a joint discussion paper on lifetime neighbourhoods. This identified a number of ways in which we can plan for lifetime neighbourhoods, together with some existing examples of good design. Over the coming year, we will develop this work, along with other partners. We will also work with volunteer local authorities and their partners to identify and share good practice in turning existing neighbourhoods into lifetime neighbourhoods. And we will introduce a new Beacon theme on inclusive planning to recognise councils providing leadership in this area.

The good news is that we already have the tools and the skills to make this work - in planning policy and guidance, and in a range of good practice guides. In addition, my Department will fund CABE to embed inclusive design principles in its advisory work, and to develop on-line resources to share best practice.

Our new regional spatial strategies, new planning guidance, and new housing advisory boards will provide planners, local authorities and local communities with more knowledge and understanding of the housing market, the local population and its age distribution, and where and how to build for the ageing population - and not just homes but whole communities which will remain welcoming, inclusive and decent places in which to grow old.

Regional and local plans are beginning to address the housing needs of older people. But we want to see regional spatial strategies and local development frameworks and other plans address demographic change up front as a fundamental aspect of building sustainable communities. To help to do this, we have funded the ILC-UK, to produce a guide for regional and local planners. We are also publishing projections of older households at district and regional level.

We will continue to ensure that planning policy reflects the high priority we are giving to the challenges of ageing. And we will work with our partners, including CABE, the NHPAU and the Planning Advisory Service, to raise awareness and understanding among the planning community of what this means in practice, through regional planning road shows, and through developing on-line tools. And we will work with local authorities to identify exemplary plans.

Many of the skills we need are home-grown, now, alongside the concept of the Lifetime Neighbourhood, by the work of the Academy for Sustainable Communities with planners, and professionals, who will designed the future.

And going back to those three million homes - we will have some new opportunities for testing out our strategy: For a start, all Eco Towns will be designed to be lifetime neighbourhoods. And we can use the Olympic site to show the world what we can do.

Most older people continue to live in their own homes, and have a strong preference to do so. However, for some, changing circumstances and mobility or other health problems, mean that a move to a new home which better meets their needs is sensible.

We will need more specialist housing in the future, offering more choice across the spectrum - from retirement housing to nursing homes. We are substantially increasing funding for public housing over the next three years. In addition, Department of Health will make an extra £80 million available for innovation in extra care housing.

We need a new positive vision for specialised housing for older people as somewhere that more people aspire to live in later life and which will match their lifestyles. We need more good quality specialised housing of different types to promote greater choice. And we need to set new standards which will serve to lead rather than follow the best of services. We want to see the future of specialised housing at the heart of the community, offering services for the whole community. We have published a toolkit for local strategic planning of specialised housing, More Choice, Greater Voice (external link).

"This strategy is a significant milestone in a process - but it is only the start. At the moment it is only a paper - we need your help to make it a reality."

We will commission an Innovation Panel, to report to ministers on how to further reform new build housing, and how we can make the best use of existing specialised stock. My department will also work with the Department of Health and the Housing Corporation / Homes and Communities Agency, to consider the options for re-modelling and re-provision.

Our strategy has spelled out our vision for the next five to ten years. Where do we go from here? I believe that we now have the right tools in place:

a priority for - and commitment to - older people's experience of home and neighbourhood in the new PSA and local government performance regime;
an enabling planning policy environment, and a clear aspiration that new housing will be adaptable to meet the changing needs of an ageing population;
better and more sophisticated data and evidence, about the scale of demographic change and the issues this raises in terms of future generations' aspirations and outlooks;
new practical toolkits and other help, for regional planners, and to support the local strategic development of housing with care;
and, of course, the resources - both existing programmes, and the new monies we have announced.

But, we can't do this alone. Government, rightly, needs to demonstrate leadership - to set the framework, and provide resources and tools. But we need to work with all partners in the statutory, voluntary and community, and private sectors, and especially with older people themselves. This strategy is a significant milestone in a process - but it is only the start. At the moment it is only a paper - we need your help to make it a reality. Over the next few months we will be working up detailed delivery plans. Let us know how you can help.