'More Older People's Housing Could Save Taxpayer £14bn'

The taxpayer could save £14.5bn over 50 years if just one couple among every 50 older homeowners downsizes into specialist retirement housing. That is the finding of a report by older people’s specialist housing association Anchor and Strategic Society Centre. The report, entitled Valuing Retirement Housing, uses a wide range of datasets to provide estimates of savings retirement housing can generate for local and central government. It estimates one extra person moving into specialised retirement housing could save £9,700 over 10 years due to fewer falls, reduced home and residential care. A couple moving into retirement housing could save the taxpayer £54,800 due to freeing up a home for first-time buyers, creating more retirement wealth for them and less reliance on housing benefit. Read more on Inside Housing.

Ban Landlords from Buying New-Build Properties

Landlords should be banned from buying new-build properties and have less access to buy-to-let lending to address the wealth gap between them and their tenants, a thinktank has suggested.  The Strategic Society Centre said there was a huge disparity between private landlords and tenants, which threatened to undermine the government's attempts to help new homebuyers by boosting the supply of new homes. The SSC's analysis of the sector, based on official figures, found that private sector landlords tended to be wealthier than the general population, with an average of £75,103 held in savings, bonds and other investments. In contrast, private renters had an average wealth of £9,506. While 50% of landlords had accrued wealth of up to £20,500, the same proportion of tenants had just £398.  Read more on the Guardian website.

Homeownership Drop to Create £8bn Benefit Bill

The cost of housing benefit for elderly people will soar by £8 billion a year by 2060 unless steps are taken to address falling homeownership, a think tank has warned. The Strategic Society Centre predicts there will be 3.45 million pensioners claiming housing benefit by 2060 costing the state £13.45 billion a year in today’s prices. It used projections of homeownership rates and government forecasts on the size of the pensioner population in 2060 to come up with the figures. Read more on Inside Housing.