To approve the Herefordshire Older People’s Housing Strategy and Pathway.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing introduced the report. He highlighted that there is an expected increase in people over the age of 65 in the county for whom there is a limited choice for downsizing or finding new housing. The strategy is intended to remedy this.

The Programme Director, Housing and Growth, presented the strategy. It responds to the issues affecting the availability of suitable housing for older people in the county in terms of rurality, demographics and financial challenges, by looking for new approaches to resolving the problems.

The age group with the highest growth rate is the over 85s who also experience health issues such as dementia and physical health conditions. Herefordshire has a dispersed older population, with people often living in larger, detached housing. The majority of people own their homes and are relatively well-off, but are faced with a lack of choice of alternative housing. There is, however, potential within communities to support people to remain in their own homes, although currently there is a lot of social isolation with frequent reports of people saying they are lonely most or all of the time and have limited contact with other people.  The recommendations, which are based on key research, promote the following action points:

·                Setting-up advice and assessment tools for families to look for information and support to help in a crisis. This needs to be developed to support people to enable decision making and planning for the future.

·                Developing the service offer to help people stay at home such as through the expansion of Telecare. The value of accessing home maintenance and gardening services is recognised as a factor in choice of accommodation due to the implications of moving home and this needs to be simplified by co-ordinating agencies.

·                Developing the right housing mix to support the population and increase choice. Targets are to 2030 and working with developers and housing associations is key in order to change their perception of the market so that there are more development schemes which are marketed to older age groups. 

A pathway has therefore been developed to set out how people plan and make decisions for their long-term wellbeing and this strategy is an important development for this age group.

The Cabinet Member for Children and young People welcomed and commended the strategy as there are common issues across all age groups.

The Chair of the General Overview and Scrutiny Committee commented that housing needs to be inexpensive and developed around the county as a whole.

The Group Leader for the Greens commented that all housing should be energy efficient and affordable. The types of housing also need to recognise that not all people benefit from single-story accommodation as use of staircases can bring health benefits because they encourage people to be more active. Co-habiting also needs to be considered as a concept as this can address loneliness.

The Group Leader of the Liberal Democrats commented that people are not getting the right housing for their needs and that being on the outskirts of towns and cities reduces accessibility of services. Whilst it is more expensive to build bungalows, they are an essential part of the housing mix for this age group and there need to be incentives for developers to build in areas that are accessible to services.  The Programme Director for Housing and Growth added that neighbourhood planning is key in this and the strategy will inform parishes in their planning. There is an increased demand for bungalows and two-bedroomed homes, and co-habiting has also been referenced in the strategy.

The Leader of the Council added that in his ward there are arrangements in place for accommodation although homes are expensive and there needs to be a co-ordinated approach to planning policy and other avenues for accommodation need to be explored.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing thanked those responsible for developing this work and commented that stakeholders are fully involved and so the strategy needs to be actioned.

At this point, the Leader offered his apologies and left the meeting. The Deputy Leader took over as Chair for the remainder of the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing added that implantation of the strategy has been discussed with the Planning team.

RESOLVED:

That      (a)     the Herefordshire Older People’s Housing Strategy and Pathway Action Plan be approved; and

(b)     the Programme Director, Housing and Growth, following consultation with the Cabinet Member, be instructed to undertake final minimum amendments as required, prior to publication.