By Brian Sloan, Chief Executive, Age Scotland
FOR young people struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder, it seems that the baby boomers had it easy. While Millennials scrimp and save to afford a deposit, an older generation is sitting pretty in family homes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Soaring prices and a shortage of housing stock haven’t been a boom for everyone. But it’s not just younger people who are losing out. Scotland’s housing is also failing to meet the needs of a rapidly ageing population.
Too many older people are stuck in unsuitable homes that are hard to heat and poorly adapted as their mobility decreases. A lack of smaller, accessible homes means downsizing isn’t always an option.
Not every pensioner is a homeowner, and one-fifth of over-65s live below the poverty line, with rent and fuel costs eating up a sizeable chunk of fixed incomes.
This is putting a strain on health and social care budgets. When stairs become a struggle, older residents need more help at home and are vulnerable to falls. Without sheltered accommodation available, many are driven into care homes before that option is necessary.
And this problem will only worsen. Within a generation, almost one-third of all Scots will be aged over 60, increasing to almost 1.8 million by 2039. Those aged over 75 will nearly double from 430,00 to 800,000.
We simply aren’t building enough homes to meet the needs of older and disabled people at present or in the future. If we really want people to be able to live independently for as long as possible, we need to incorporate age-friendly design features into new-built properties.
These include accessibility, energy efficiency, adaptability, and shared facilities.
And it’s not just about the design: as every fan of TV property shows knows, it’s the location that counts. Most people want to stay part of their community and houses and flats need to be built where they want to live. They should have good transport links and be within easy distance of local amenities such as shops, banks and doctors’ surgeries.
Encouraging older – and younger – people to live in diverse, mixed-age developments also helps combat loneliness and isolation.
We hear a lot about how the breakdown in traditional neighbourhoods has led to hundreds of thousands of people being socially isolated.
As developers build yet more student housing complexes or estates of three bedroom homes, they are not helping to create sustainable communities.
Age Scotland has joined other organisations to push for planners to put older and disabled people at the heart of the planning process.
The Planning Bill, which is working its way through the Scottish Parliament, will be a missed opportunity unless we prioritise an obligation on planning authorities to identify appropriate sites and a focus on the supply of flexible housing to support different use at different ages.
We would like to see clear national and local targets, similar to the ambitious targets already set for affordable housing.
Taking these factors into account will not only benefit older homeowners. It will also mean that people can buy a home knowing they won’t necessarily have to move if their needs change.
And it will provide real options for those who want to downsize, freeing up housing for younger families.
Of course, part of the problem is that we simply need more homes. But we also need a step change in our approach to housebuilding to future-proof provision and reflect the requirements of different age groups.
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