Housing Association To Run Extra Care Right To Buy Sub-Pilot

A Midlands housing association will run a ‘sub-pilot’ to the regional trial of the Right to Buy extension among its extra care stock. Midland Heart, which owns around 33,000 homes, has agreed to give tenants in four of its extra care homes the opportunity to purchase their homes at a discount. The wider pilot, due to start in August, is only available for general needs tenants. Read more on Inside Housing.

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Government Considers Separate Rates For Extra Care And Sheltered Housing

The government is considering separate rates for sheltered housing and extra care, sector sources have been told, as the new funding model for supported housing begins to take shape.  The government announced last week that it plans for long-term supported housing to be funded through the benefit system, with a ‘sheltered rent’ used to set rates. But representatives from the supported housing sector said civil servants have told them the government will consider changing the recently announced policy to include one band for sheltered housing and one for extra care. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Scraps Local Top Up For Supported Housing

Following the announcement that Government is dropping Local Housing Allowance rates from the funding mechanism for supported housing, the Committees have now received the full response from Government to their joint report. The response shows that the Government has also acted on the Committees' concerns that local authorities should not have to "top up" payment for supported housing, by introducing a new "sheltered rent" that means the cost of sheltered and extra care housing will be entirely covered by Housing Benefit or its replacement Universal Credit, in accordance with and actually going further than another of the committees' central recommendations. Read more on the Parliament website.

Study Shows Social Benefit Of Housing Investment

Research carried out by Housing Plus Group has revealed that local communities benefit by up to £11 for every £1 invested in affordable housing and retirement living accommodation. The group has placed a value on the social return on investment for some of its major development projects, taking into account factors such as increased support for village schools and shops as well as reduced pressure on overstretched health services. Some of the most significant social return on investment was recorded in areas around new Extra Care communities. Read more on the Housing Plus website.

Downsizing And Why Britain Needs A Plan To House Our Elderly

A new report has just put the spotlight on older people downsizing, suggesting that millions of under-occupied homes would be freed up and those moving would gain health and quality of life benefits. According to the report, part of the Housing our Ageing Population: Positive Ideas series from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing and Care for Older People, there are eight million people in the UK interested in downsizing. This, according to the APPG, could free up 3.5 million homes, including two million three or four-bedroom homes. Read more on the Extra Care website.

Protect Housing For Vulnerable People

CIH is urging Chancellor George Osborne to use next month’s (March) Budget to exclude supported housing from plans to cap housing benefit for social housing at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates (the amount of housing benefit people living in the private rented sector are able to claim). CIH’s budget submission details the potential impact on people who live in supported housing and the social landlords which provide it. One local authority estimated that new tenants in one of its extra care schemes would be left with a shortfall of up to £67 a week. A social landlord with a large care and support arm estimated that it will cost them upwards of £18m a year – making schemes unviable – while another said it would be left with a £9.5m shortfall. Read more on the CIH website.

Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet providers of (a) supported housing and (b) specified housing to discuss the effect of the proposed change to social rents on the viability of those types of housing.

Brandon Lewis: We welcome the opportunity to engage with the supported housing sector to understand how the sector’s views can best be accommodated as we implement our policy. Ministers and officials have been discussing this issue with the National Housing Federation and a number of providers. We plan to except specialised supported housing, residential care homes, nursing homes and PFI-funded Extra Care housing from the rent reductions. We are continuing to work with the sector on this issue to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.

Councils Urged To Build Thousands of New Bungalows

Councils will need to build thousands more bungalows to deal with a ‘critical’ problem in housing Britain’s elderly, ministers say.  Advice to be issued to planners will highlight the need to match the supply of local accommodation to the needs of an ageing population looking to live independently for longer. The number of bungalows being built has almost come to a halt in recent years. As well as bungalows, councils will be told to consider retirement villages of 100 or so houses with activities for residents; sheltered homes with a warden on duty or on call; Extra Care, a form of retirement housing with 24-hour personal care and meals; and nursing homes.  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Supported Housing Rent Row Sparks Care Crisis

Councils and supported housing providers across the UK are locked in bitter legal disputes over rent levels which are taking so long to resolve that services are facing closure.  Hundreds of documents obtained under a freedom of information request by extra care and supported housing provider SAF Housing have exposed many cases where local authorities are refusing to provide enough housing benefit to meet rent levels charged by charities and voluntary organisations for supported housing.  They also reveal a number of legal battles lasting for years at a time, during which period providers must fund the difference between the rent level demanded and the housing benefit councils are prepared to provide. Anecdotal evidence suggests some supported housing providers have shut as a result.  Read more on the SAF website.

Sustainable Funding Model to Deliver Extra Care Housing?

With a recent Social Care White Paper setting out a new direction for adult social care, this Housing LIN Viewpoint explains how Local Integrated Service Trusts could provide a sustainable vehicle for effective joint ventures between local authorities, social housing providers, charities and the private sector to develop capacity and investment in care at home in extra care housing. It draws on a round table discussion recently hosted by Bevan Brittan LLP which explored the scope for "Mission Investment" to help meet the challenges of funding housing for older people and people with long term conditions. Download a copy from the HLIN website.

Reviving the Economy by Moving Out the 'Bedroom Blockers'

Lord Best has come up with a new strategy that will, in his words, "solve all the country's problems".  Here's what the peer proposes: building 100,000 retirement, supported housing and extra-care homes a year. The trickledown effect will, in one handy flourish, pull Britain out of double-dip recession while also solving the country's acute and growing housing crisis.  The boost to the construction industry would, by his calculations, create between 300,000 and 500,000 new jobs.  Building 100,000 homes designed especially for the needs of an ageing population would also help to house 350,000 other people. By selling their under-occupied large family homes and downsizing to smaller, specialist properties, our older people could help a whole generation of potential first-time buyers who are priced out of the market.  Lord Best said many of these homes would have been untouched and undecorated for up to 35 years, and so would sell at the lower end of average market value and be affordable to families struggling through recession. "Nearly all of the 7.8m people of pensionable age have more than two spare rooms, making way for 350,000 family [members] with children."  Read more on the Guardian website.

First Social Housing REIT Set To Launch

A new company is set to take advantage of the government’s attempt to open up tax-efficient property investment vehicles in the affordable housing sector by launching the first social housing real estate investment trust.  Single Access Funding plans to launch its REIT in September, shortly after legislation easing entry into the market is due to be approved.  SAF has targeted £500 million of institutional investment and will go on a ‘roadshow’ to raise funds next month. Phil Shanks, co-founder of SAF, said he hoped to have between £200 million and £300 million of funding in place by September.  The money will be used to finance up to 4,000 new social homes, initially extra care and supported housing.  Read more on Inside Housing.

New Eco-Friendly Extra Care Housing Complex Opens In Nottingham

The Department for Health and the HCA have provided funding for a state-of-the-art extra care complex in Nottingham. The social rent apartment complex for the over 55s is one of the most environmentally friendly in the country incorporating whole house heat recovery systems, rainwater harvesting, a bio-diverse green roof. The building is also connected to the district heating system. The extra care complex caters for residents over the age of 55 and includes 71 one-bedroom apartments, as well as communal facilities including a restaurant, lounge, hairdressers and activity room. The scheme is being run by Leicester-based social housing group LHA-ASRA, after the land was provided by Nottingham City Council on a 125-year lease. As part of the complex, LHA-ASRA has built a 60-place day service centre, which replaces a former City Council facility. Albany House has replaced an unpopular block of 34 apartments for the elderly. Residents were offered apartments in the new complex. Read more on 24dash.

Study Highlights Value of Extra Care Housing

An evaluation of extra care housing developments has concluded the schemes could help meet the needs of an ageing population. Research published by the Housing and Learning Improvement Network and the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent has found extra care housing can improve quality of life and save public money. The study looked at 19 extra care housing developments part funded through the Department of Health’s extra care housing fund. It found the schemes offered a ‘viable alternative to residential care’. Schemes were less expensive than care homes, and gave residents higher levels of physical and mental engagement. The most cost-effective schemes tended to have joint housing and care management, rather than splitting the two areas. However the report notes there were problems with the development of the projects. Eleven of the 19 were more expensive than planned, and some units intended for sale were turned into social housing as a result of the economic downturn. Download a copy of the report from the Housing Lin website.

Strategic Housing for Older People

To coincide with the Government's Housing Strategy and a 'deal for older people's housing', this Strategic Housing for Older People (SHOP) Resource Pack offers a sector-led approach to meeting the housing demand and supply challenges for an increasingly ageing population. SHOP provides a framework and a basket of accompanying tools for councils, public and private sector developers and providers to develop their strategic market position and take the initiative in designing and building homes that older people want, including extra care housing. The papers and accompanying tools in this Resource Pack support a variety of activities including:
*how to develop an understanding of what future demand is likely to be for housing for older people
*what does the market look like now and how should it look in the future
*what are the key success factors in the service design process for extra care housing
*how do you promote and market extra care housing
Download the pack from the housinglin website.

Extra Care Provides Health Boost for Residents

Residents in extra care housing are less likely to end up living in institutional accommodation, new research has revealed. The report from the International Longevity Centre found that just 8 per cent of people living in extra care homes entered institutions after five years of residence. Among those aged 80 and over, just 10 per cent entered institutional accommodation, compared with 19 per cent among those receiving domiciliary care. The study, which used data on 4,000 residents supplied by three extra care providers, also found that the type of housing resulted in a lower level of overnight hospital admissions and improvements in health that resulted in a reduction in ancillary social care needs. Download a copy of the report from the ILC website.