What do you think of when you hear the words “housing crisis”? I’d wager the images that come to mind are of young people, of boomerang kids still living at home in their thirties. Perhaps you’d imagine the economic pressures of getting a home that are delaying family formation and depressing the UK’s birth rate, or generational inequalities in wealth that are fuelling poverty and division. However, these overlook the hardship currently faced by older people who are trapped in unsuitable housing, and even greater problems coming down the track over the next few decades.
There is a collision coming between two of the biggest changes taking place in our society, in demography and housing. In 1999, one in six of the UK’s population was over 65. By 2019, it was one in five. By 2050 it’s set to be one in four. There are likely to be about 7.5m more older people by 2069 than there are today. The fastest increase will be among those over 85, an age group that is expected to more than double over the next 25 years. As well as ageing, we are also seeing ever-greater numbers of people living with multiple health conditions. We constantly hear about the impact of these trends on the health service, but the consequences for housing are hardly mentioned.
Right now, almost three-quarters of the over-65s own their home outright, a big increase from just over half at the start of the 1990s. The government’s “Right to Buy” scheme played a big part in this, with the proportion of older people in social rented homes having halved from 32 per cent to 16 per cent. By contrast, the proportion of older people renting privately has stayed low, at about 6 per cent—so far. Big changes are coming.
Homeownership levels peaked at the start of the 2000s and then declined until around 2016, with only a very small uptick since then. Since the early 1990s the big trend in housing has been the rise in private renting. In 1993, one in 10 working-age people rented privately—now it’s a quarter. Private renting is rising in every age group, but the biggest increases are among people aged between 35 and 44. This group is three times more likely to rent than was the case 20 years ago. On the flipside, the proportion of people who own with a mortgage has tumbled: in 1997, more than two-thirds of people aged 35-44 had a mortgage; by 2017 it was only half. This is absolutely central to future living standards. Already, 750,000 people over 60 live in private rented housing in England, with the proportion of households headed by older renters having doubled in the last 15 years. Renting pensioners are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to those who own their home.
If you reach retirement living in a house you own, especially if you’ve paid off your mortgage, you’re free of the biggest outgoing most of us ever face. Research from the mutual insurer Royal London found that someone who owned their home outright could keep up their living standards with a pension pot of £260,000. If they had to keep paying private rent, they’d need a pot of £445,000 to do the same. The increase in homeownership was also a major factor in the enormous falls in pensioner poverty over the 1990s and 2000s.
“Renting pensioners are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to those who own their own home”
However, among the working-age population, more and more people on low incomes are being forced into the private rented sector, often facing unaffordable rents and stuck in homes that are damp or unsafe. Many feel closer to homelessness than homeownership. Saving for a deposit is a distant dream when keeping up with rent and bills. Millions of people now face old age dominated by high rents and poor-quality homes.
Even now, many older people find themselves living in homes that are unsuitable and unhealthy. Research suggests that poor housing costs the NHS £1.4bn a year. Four in 10 older private renters live in houses that don’t meet the decent homes standard, stuck in damp or dangerous living conditions. The fear of being evicted stops many from complaining, or asking for repairs.
All this has especially heart-breaking consequences for quality of life in those last years. The charity Marie Curie, whose nurses provide palliative and end-of-life care, describes a “vicious cycle of fuel poverty and terminal illness.” Illness increases energy costs, which are already high for those living in homes in bad repair. Many can’t afford to heat their homes properly, as well as having to go without other essentials. Cold, damp conditions breed mould, which makes infections more likely. The cold increases the risk of bronchitis and pneumonia. These conditions are bad for anybody, but for someone whose immune system is already weak from advanced cancer or chronic kidney disease, the consequences can be severe. Living like this also heightens the pain that many people live with in their last years. About four in 10 Marie Curie nurses say that fuel poverty has made their patients’ physical and mental health worse.
Added to the problems built up by a shortage of affordable housing, we also face a shortage of homes that are designed to be suitable for the later part of our lives (or for the growing numbers of those who live with multiple health conditions at younger ages). Research for the NHS suggests there will be big shortfalls in specialist houses by 2035—more than 750,000 extra specialist homes will be needed. Many older people want to move into smaller and more suitable homes, but can’t because of a lack of affordable options. Private developers are reluctant to build specialist housing because these schemes aren’t considered financially viable, leaving it to local authorities, housing associations and other public bodies. As with social housing, successive governments have failed to meet this need.
In England (unlike in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), the government doesn’t have a strategy for housing older people, let alone a credible plan to solve the problem. In its absence, the Housing Learning and Improvement Network commissioned one from the retirement housing developer McCarthy & Stone. This called for the government to build 30,000 more retirement dwellings a year for the next 10 years (up from about 8,000 a year now). They argue this would save the NHS and social services about £2.1bn a year.
A new approach to housing fit for an ageing population is undoubtedly needed, along with new approaches to care. But discussions about what to do too often seem to start and end with money. As we saw recently with the government’s long-awaited “oven-ready” plan to fix social care, there is little discussion about what kind of lives people want to live as they grow older. Maintaining independence and connections with family, friends and community tend to be our highest priorities as we grow older. Instead of fixating purely on bricks and balance sheets, we need to start by asking what means most to us as we age—and design homes and communities that enable all of us to live, and die, with as much dignity, love and independence as possible.
