Older People's Housing Taskforce inaugural meeting Tues 16 May

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The first meeting of the new task force for older people’s housing took place this morning with the Housing and Care Ministers both present and giving this their strong personal commitment. I’m delighted both as an architect, and as Chair of RHG that this excellent initiative is on the way, and that the special housing needs of older people are finally being fully recognised. It’s a very strong group of specialists and I look forward to working with them all over the next year.

Richard at RHG reports to the Minister for Social Care

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The Retirement Housing Group recently provided a report to Housing Minister, Lucy Frazer MP which showed that:

 

  • The total supply of specialist housing for older people has not kept pace with the aging population, falling 21% between 2015 and 2021.

  • Supply per head is much higher in the South East, South West and London meaning residents in much of the Midland and the North of the country – key levelling up areas – face poor housing choices in later life.

 

The report argues the importance of addressing both the shortfall and the imbalance so that people in all parts of the country have the housing options they need in later years, and stressed that this should be a key part of Government agenda with regards to levelling up, bringing the considerable social and economic benefits linked to specialist retirement housing to parts of the country that most need it.

 

The RHG believes that the provision of specialist housing for older people needs to increase to 30,000 units per year (10% of the government’s housing target), up from the current provision of c. 7000 units per year.

 

RHG have suggested Four Key asks of policy makers which are set out in the report and are intended to help proactively plan specialist older persons housing.

 

Here are Richard’s letter to the Minister as chair of RHG, the report itself , and the Minister’s very positive response.

LETTER TO MINISTER

RHG REPORT

RESPONSE

Happy New Year

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Firstly let us wish you very Happy New Year.

Although Christmas 2021 did not turn out exactly as we all hoped, the year had on the whole been good at RMA and things are bright looking forward. Our base in the grounds of Hatfield House provides the ideal hub for a team still working largely, and very effectively, from home and a base for new local work.

We have been working on a series of spectacular one-off houses. In Harrow an ‘Arts and Crafts’ villa has been completely re-invented, with a new basement leisure complex, seen here just after the pool was filled. Similar projects at slightly earlier stages are currently under way in Hampstead, Belsize Park and Kingston upon Thames.

Harrow

Filled Pool at Harrow

The team have also continued to work on a wide variety of housing projects for older people. Our 77-apartment Extra Care scheme in Norfolk is currently out to tender while three major applications for Retirement Housing in Kent, Surrey, and Hampshire and two care homes are all currently in for planning: projects with a combined construction value in excess of £60M.

Extra Care Scheme in Diss

Cotswold Gate, Burford

Pictured here is our newly completed Retirement Housing scheme for Beechcroft Developments in Godalming clustered around an extraordinary Edwardian house created by a teacher at nearby Charterhouse School. Another recent completion has been at Cotswold Gate in Burford.

Godalming

Godalming

Richard’s work as chair of the Retirement Housing Group UK continues to be both demanding and rewarding, with a growth in membership, including top specialist providers in the field, cementing the group’s inclusive reputation, representing developers, operators, and consultants right across the older people’s housing sector. Our lobbying of government continues as a major strand of work and we are currently involved demonstrating the important role specialist housing can play in ‘levelling up.’

Expert witness advice from both Richard and Yarema also continues to be much in demand with current cases in many parts of the country: Bolton and Cheshire, Mayfair, Hampstead, and many others. It can be very intriguing to consider the extraordinary way in which some other architects work.

And so, our best wishes to you all for a prosperous, much more normal new year.

MHCLG consultation response - Strengthening consumer redress in the housing market

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Strengthening Consumer Redress Consultation.jpg

I chaired an interesting meeting yesterday with my Retirement Housing Group hat on to coordinate a sector response to the current MHCLG consultation on "Strengthening consumer redress in the housing market".

The proposals centre on the suggested need for a single housing ombudsman but there are other issues as well.

With representation from ARCO, RHG, Pegasus Life and McCarthy & Stone, plus two leads from MHCLG we had a very constructive meeting and hopefully raised government awareness of the specific issues relative to the Retirement Housing sector by a notch or two.