Happy Anniversary 'Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods'

The Foundation for Lifetime Homes and Neighbourhoods will be launched in parliament on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 - two years since the government published its national strategy for housing in an ageing society; ‘Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods’. The Foundation has been developed by Habinteg Housing Association in conjunction with Age Concern and Help the Aged, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) to promote Lifetime Homes and inclusive design standards within the UK.

The Lifetime Homes and Neighbourhood Standards are essential to achieving a fair housing choice for older and disabled people and a more functionally inclusive built environment. However, the Foundation warns that the current consultation on the Code for Sustainable Homes will threaten the future of the standards by making their implementation more flexible.

TCPA Interim Chief Executive, Kate Henderson said:
“There is a huge housing challenge posed by the ten to eleven million people - including 800,000 children - with disabilities and our country’s changing age profile. In 2008, the Government was explicit that all new homes built after 2013 should be Lifetime Homes. Importantly, this would not just enable more people to live independently, but also reduce personal and public expenditure costs for health and social care, as well as boost people’s quality of life by giving them greater choice about where they could live whatever their personal abilities.

“The welcome creation of the Foundation for Lifetime Homes and Neighbourhoods is now more important than ever. Since the Government launched the Standards two years ago we have seen very little action at the national level, a situation that will worsen if their application becomes more discretionary, perpetuating the regional and local variation developers currently find so problematic. Furthermore, it risks embedding and increasing spatial inequality and imposing escalating costs on future generations that local communities will be hard pressed to meet.”

“Despite the current economic down-turn, the challenges the Government identified exactly two years ago not only remain, but draw inexorably closer. Government needs to take action now.”

The launch event, taking place this Wednesday 3rd March in the House of Lords with Baroness Rosalie Wilkins, presents an opportunity for parliamentarians to meet with disabled and older people living in Lifetime Homes and the leading housing associations and house builders turning the concept into reality.