Home and dry - The need for a decent home in later life

The Centre for Ageing Better and Care and Repair England have published two report which provide analysis and commentary about housing conditions in England in the context of population ageing.

The first report reveals that over two million over-55s are living in a home that endangers their health or wellbeing. It calls for urgent government action to address housing stock quality as part of an overhaul of its national housing policy, with a focus on the people and places most at risk.

The report also found that over 4.3 million homes in England don’t meet basic standards of decency, most commonly because of the presence of a serious hazard to their occupants’ health or safety. Furthermore, the cost of non-decent homes in England to the NHS is estimated at around £1.4 billion per annum for all ages. However, it highlights that for an investment of £4.3 billion could repair all these homes and would be paid back in just over eight years.

The second report, is a reference document provides more detailed data and tables from the specially commissioned analysis of the latest English Housing Survey (EHS), the data that underpinned the main report. Unless otherwise stated, the data presented here is taken from the 2017 EHS survey.

To complement these reports, Decent Homes for Ageing Well, a new graphic briefing from Care & Repair England highlights the many reasons why action is urgently needed to improve the safety, warmth and quality of existing homes.