A group of MPs, investors and charities are backing calls for the UK government to take urgent action to boost the delivery of housing-with-care provision.
Companies such as Legal & General, charities like Anchor Hanover, and a cross-party group of Parliamentarians and older people have called on the government to back the growth of retirement villages and extra care.
Conservative MP Bob Blackman this week tabled an early day motion in the Commons noting the need for a significant expansion of housing-with-care.
“The coronavirus crisis has helped to draw attention to the need for more good housing and care options for older people," said Blackman.
"There are many people who want to go on leading active and independent lives but to have the peace of mind that care and support is there if they need it,” he added.
The call was backed by Legal & General, owner of the Inspired Villages later living business that builds retirement communities.
“We need to unlock the major barriers – from fiscal to regulatory - to enable people to move into the right housing to suit their changing needs and accelerate the growth of a new generation of purpose-built stock,” said Legal & General chief executive Nigel Wilson.
Further backing came from Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO), which has helped to develop a housing-with-care growth action plan setting out a series of immediately actionable, low or no-cost measures.
The measures include boosting consumer confidence by creating clarity on fee structures and consumer protection; enabling a flexible approach to tenure models to provide greater customer choice; and reducing uncertainty by clarifying the status of housing with care in the planning system.
“The need to reform the social care sector is unarguable. The government must not miss this opportunity to create systemic change rather than papering over the cracks of a system that is broken,” said ARCO chairman and Audley Group chief executive Nick Sanderson (pictured).
