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You and Yours - Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 25.02.08 - Housing for an Ageing Population PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Now there will be 15 million people over the age of 65 in the UK by 2031, five and a half million more than there are today, according to the charity Age Concern. And it also estimates that the number of over 85s will almost double in the next 25 years. Age Concern with Help the Aged and other campaigners say that much of our housing isn't appropriate for older and disabled people. They're calling for more homes which are suitable for or can easily be adapted to the needs of older and disabled people with, for example, level access, wide doorways and a downstairs toilet. This morning the government published its new national strategy for housing in an ageing society, Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods. Minister Baroness Andrews joins us. Baroness Andrews, you say in the strategy that you want all new homes to be built to lifetime home standards from 2013 but hundreds of thousands of homes will have been built before that date, why are you waiting five years? ANDREWS Well we think it's a challenge to industry and it's a challenge we will work with them to achieve. So what we're doing essentially for the first time is setting out a very clear pathway which they can follow with support and advice as to how to understand and interpret the regulations as to the standards themselves and we will work with them so that by 2010 we hope they will make a lot of progress but at that point we'll have to consider regulation if they haven't gone fast enough. BARCLAY But all new social housing must be built to lifetime home standards by 2011, am I right? ANDREWS That's absolutely right. We'll be showing leadership in that field and you know many developers are already doing this and of course there's a huge market, as you've implied, for older people's housing. We're sure that the industry's aware of that and is going to respond to that. BARCLAY There is a huge market for older people - for homes for older people but the House Building Federation has expressed concerns that building homes to these standards could push up the cost - push up prices - making it harder for first time buyers coming along to get on the housing ladder? ANDREWS Well we don't accept that because our own research shows that putting these lifetime home standards which are things like accessible doorways, wider stairs and so on are very simple adaptations, we've costed it at about £550 per home for new build design and a recent poll showed that these houses are so desirable that people would pay a small extra premium, in fact people say they would be prepared to pay up to about a thousand pounds. They will be houses which are flexible and which people can age in because this is not a policy for older people's housing, it's a policy for housing as we grow older all of us and it's about what we all need. BARCLAY You want all properties to be built to these standards, what about individuals who want to build their own homes, don't they have the freedom or won't they have the freedom to design their own homes as they wish? ANDREWS Well indeed they will, as they do now but if it's in a regulated system of course they will have to abide by building regulations but as I've explained we're working with industry to move through this process so that industry comes with us to actually get the best result for everybody. BARCLAY Now you also mentioned in the strategy that homes should be easily adapted to the needs of older people, getting repairs and adaptations done on a property can be quite a daunting task and age concern says that councils have been cutting back on their handy person schemes. Your new strategy is going to spend £33 million on a national repair and adaptation service will that be enough money given the additional number of 5.6 million older people by 2031? ANDREWS Well it's a very significant step forward. It will mean about - at least 125,000 older people each year will get repairs and minor adaptations. We think it's about 300, 400 more vans for example. And when you think that a grab rail which will help people move into the garden safely, get upstairs, costs £50 and a hip operations costs £6,000 you'll see why we think this is so cost effective and such a good idea. BARCLAY Baroness Andrews thank you for joining us. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
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