- Conference
- 2025 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 9 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried
1. Conference notes with concern the campaign by Silver Voices, which highlights the state of the housing market for affordable homes for older people.
2. Providing more age-appropriate homes would enhance the later life experience of many older people, free many more family homes for younger people and reduce the pressures on health and social care.
3. The current situation is bad and becoming worse since the number of older people is increasing every year.
4. The previous government set up the Mayhew Review to look into this situation. It was chaired by Professor Les Mayhew and its subtitle, ‘future proofing retirement living’ sums up its brief.
5. It reported in November 2022 and made a number of recommendations which were taken up by the recent Taskforce which reported 26 November 2024.
6. These studies both confirmed that up to 50,000 age-appropriate homes should be built each year to meet the demands of an ageing population. It is estimated that here will be over 17 million over 65s by 2040.
7. The current rate of building is a mere 7000 a year
8. A recent report by the Centre for Ageing Better, an organisation aimed at tackling inequalities in ageing, found that one in five people aged over 50 is living in a poor-quality home that could be making their existing health conditions worse.
9. Although the present government welcomed the two government reports there is no plan to implement any of the recommendations and it is unlikely in the current economic climate that any progress will be made without constant pressure.
Conference calls on the national Retired Members Committee to
1. work with appropriate bodies to further these aims and campaign for provision of affordable, suitable and energy efficient homes for older people and
2. campaign for the government to implement the recommendations of the two government reports without delay.