Older People's Housing Taskforce inaugural meeting Tues 16 May

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 press release on the launch of the Task Force on Older People’s Housing

The Retirement Housing Group have issued a Press Release on the launch of the Task Force on Older People’s Housing.

To read this in full please click on the image below:

Press Release

Planning success

We’ve had several planning successes and submissions in the last few months.

We successfully gained planning for two separate, linked planning applications for a luxury residential project in Westminster. We were granted permission to extend the penthouse to provide additional living space and add a rooftop pool to the terrace. We’re excited to continue working with the client to refurbish the space and improve this twelfth floor apartment which has the most impressive views.

We have also had planning permission granted for the replacement screen for a one-off house near Finsbury Park. The house requires some major renovations to bring out the true concept of the house and allow its style to come through.

We have very much enjoyed working on a spectacular Listed Building, a 1904 house near Henley where Ian Fleming spent part of his childhood with a setting and interiors of truly extraordinary quality. We have been working on proposals for conversion to a total of 25 units across the site which have now been submitted for planning. The applications consist of three linked applications, for the main house and stables, potting shed and squash courts.

Richard at RHG reports to the Minister for Social Care

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

Our Christmas Message

The year that is rapidly drawing to a close - the tenth year since RMA was founded – has, I’m glad to say, been a good one for us. The team, nine of us at present, have been together much more in the office, and enjoying the beautiful grounds of Hatfield House. We have also though stretched the possibilities of remote working on occasion, with simultaneous input at one point from India, Poland and Seattle. Finding times for team Zoom meetings was challenging!

Bishops Waltham

Over the last year important planning permissions for retirement villages have been granted in Tunbridge Wells and Bishops Waltham – the latter after a five year delay! – and care home applications have been approved at appeal in Chapelfield near Epping Forest and Crawley down, Mid-Sussex. Current projects in the same fields are in Surrey, Hertfordshire and Sutton – a total of 240 dwellings for older people and 110 car home beds.

On the listed buildings side we have very much enjoyed working on the spectacular 1904 house near Henley where Ian Fleming spent part of his childhood, with a setting and interiors of truly extraordinary quality. We are also embarking on work for two different churches. In Lindfield, West Sussex, we are involved with improvements to their church hall; a fifteenth century, grade two star former pub known as the Tiger, while in St Albans we are commencing a study shortly on a listed Georgian Methodist church. Two of our private house projects in Harrow and Elstree are also for listed buildings from 1910 and 1680 respectively, and are both now complete.

House near HenLey

A third private residential project involves refurbishing, extending and adding a pool to a very fine twelfth floor penthouse in Westminster, and we are also working on major repairs to a striking, highly contemporary house in North London, a very welcome local project in Welwyn Garden City, our GP surgery in Southall where the first phase is now complete, and a major office reclad and retrofit in our old stamping ground in Clerkenwell.

Westminster Penthouse

Westminster Penthouse

Expert witness instructions have meanwhile been coming in increasing numbers for both Richard and Yarema, involving major fires, planning problems, fee disputes and a whole range of other problems. Such work can be very eye opening into the abilities and occasional weaknesses of our fellow architects.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Richard continues, as chair of RHGuk, to be involved in hugely important task of lobbying ministers to get a level playing field for older peoples housing in planning terms. Frustratingly we now have our fifth housing minister this year which makes any form of progress difficult in the extreme.

Enough! If you have got this far, thank you for your interest and we send you all our very best wishes for Christmas and 2023

OUR 10th BIRTHDAY

Planning Success!

We’ve recently received news of two successful planning applications.

The first is at Crawley Down, West Sussex.
The design of the 64 Bed Care Home building has been positioned to accommodate arboricultural and highways constraints, and is a two storey building to avoid undue impact on the surroundings.
The design and materials have followed local Weald precedents with steep, plain-tiled, gabled roofs, and large areas of tile hanging above brickwork, for the external walls.

The scheme provides a good care provision through its groupings of four wings of 16 beds, each with its own facilities. In addition to this there are communal spaces and gardens set within secure, beautifully landscaped grounds.

The planning application went to appeal and planning has now been granted.

The second, at Eridge Road, Tunbridge Wells, was unanimously approved by the committee.

The scheme has 40 apartments and community facilities for Older People plus the conversion and restoration of 2 existing houses, in Tunbridge Wells.

Although the site is currently derelict and un-prepossessing in itself the site lies within the Tunbridge Wells Conservation Area, close to identified heritage assets. It is bounded by a row of Victorian semi-detached stucco villas, in the Italianate style, a pair of semi-detatched houses and a large brick railway shed. The design and scale of the buildings was constrained by privacy and daylighting constraints for the neighbouring flats and the pair of houses. Additionally it has been driven by a thoughtful approach to the architectural relationship between these buildings and the desire to create a varied but coherent roofscape

Happy New Year

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.

Project Updates Autumn 2021

We have recently submitted planning for two large schemes for Beechcroft Developments Ltd. They are both Housing for Older People, in sensitive contexts.

Fonthill is a vacant locally listed building in a conservation area and we are proposing new flats next to the historic building which already has planning for its conversion. Eridge Road is currently a vacant site, but is surrounded by a row of Victorian semi-detached stucco villas, in the Italianate style, a pair of semi-detached houses and a large brick railway shed.

In the care sector, our Extra Care project in Diss for Sunstone Living has gone out to tender. Some of the CGI’s for the communal areas of the building are below.

For our residential projects on site, there has been significant progress on Four Winds which is almost complete, looking fantastic and is being occupied.

Fonthill

Eridge Road

Diss

Diss

Stamp Duty Success

Richard, in his role as chair of Retirement Housing Group, was among the signatories of a recent letter to the Chancellor requesting a reduction in Stamp Duty, and was delighted with yesterday’s confirmation that the suggested change will be put in place immediately.

Richard becomes Chair of the RHG

Richard has recently taken over the Chair of the Retirement Housing Group; the largest and most widely representative trade association in the older people’s housing sector, with a membership including major providers, advisory bodies and specialist consultants.

The group has recently been co-ordinating sector-wide talks on how best to deal with the threat of Coronavirus, and regular meetings with Care Minister Helen Whately and her team.

Burford Planning success!

Burford

Our application for 57 assisted living flats and cottages together with a 64 bed care home has been approved at committee today.

Burford Planning application submitted

Burford

Our application for 57 assisted living flats and cottages together with a 64 bed care home has now been submitted and is currently under consideration.

Jentex revised planning application submitted

Jentex

A revised application with 56 houses, bungalows and maisonettes alongside a 61 unit extra care scheme has recently been submitted.

Godalming planning approved

Godalming

 The application including the refurbishment of the splendid Edwardian Manor House was unanimously approved by the planning committee and we are now well advanced with the working drawings.

Leatherhead wins WhatHouse Award

The Farthings Leatherhead

 The scheme is due to be officially opened in January and we delighted to learn that it won Silver in the Best Retirement category at the recent ‘What House? Awards

St Albans on Site

Maryland Place St Albans

 Work is well advanced on site with 9 units are now sold and many more reserved.

HAPPI 4 - Housing for People in Rural Areas launched

Lord Gardiner presenting HAPPI 4 at the House of Lords

HAPPI 4, a report on Housing for Older People in Rural Areas, was launched at an event in the House of Lords yesterday which Richard attended as one of those who gave attendance. The report was produced by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People which is co-chaired by Lord Best and by Peter Aldous MP. The main speech was given by Lord Gardiner (pictured), the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Rural Affairs who emphasised the huge importance of initiatives to improve the lives of the very high number of older people living in the countryside, before he and Lord Best dashed off for the Brexit vote. Some interesting info-graphics emerging from the report are shown here.

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MHCLG consultation response - Strengthening consumer redress in the housing market

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.