MPs will on 1 July hold what is claimed to be the first ever formal debate on retirement communities following lobbying by the Associated Retirement Community Operators (Arco) trade association.
The debate on the effect of Covid-19 on retirement communities will take place at Westminster Hall from 3.15pm.
Arco said the Westminster Hall debate will focus on the way in which “housing with care offers a new, innovative model for delivering care, and keeping older people active and healthy for longer”.
The Westminster Hall debate “signifies growing Parliamentary support for new social care options like housing with care” to complement existing options like care homes and home care, it added.
Earlier this year, MPs and peers joined forces with over 30 charity and private sector leaders, older people’s representatives and academics to write an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for the 2020s to be the “decade of housing with care”.
That came shortly after Parliamentarians and experts had collaborated to produce a ‘Housing with care grey paper’ with policy ideas to expand the sector.
Arco estimates 0.6 per cent of over-65s in the UK currently have the opportunity to live in housing with care compared to around six per cent in countries like New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
The sector has been calling for the creation of a cross-government housing with care task force to overcome policy barriers to expansion, which include a lack of clarity in the planning system and consumer protection regulation.
“We’re really pleased that the housing with care sector will finally be getting the Parliamentary attention it deserves,” said Arco executive director Michael Voges.
“Retirement communities up and down the country have shown their ability to keep residents safe, shielded and socially connected during the pandemic, and we need many more of them as part of a more diverse social care system,” he added.
“We look forward to hearing from MPs of all parties at the debate…and hope that it spurs the government action that we need to see for the housing-with-care sector to transform the lives of many more thousands of older people.”
