Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 78
1st Report - Meeting housing demand
Published 10 Jan 2022
Built Environment Committee Meeting the UK’s housing demand All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
One of the most important challenges in the coming years will be ensuring there is a good supply of suitable housing as the population ages. In the 10 years up to 2028, the number of households with people aged 75 and over living on their own is expected to increase by 461,000. 142 By 2032, the number of people over 80 is estimated to rise to 5 million, up from 3.2 million presently. 143 This demographic shift will clearly have a significant bearing on the housing market and the types of homes that will be required. The Lifestory Group, a later-living housebuilder, highlighted the need for “a diverse range of well designed, sustainable, later living homes delivered to provide older people with suitable housing choices”. They stressed that “failure to meet this demand will put greater pressure on already overstretched resources, including adult social care and the NHS.” 144 The Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee published a report Housing for Older People in 2018. 145 Specialist housing
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Meeting housing demand, 10 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 10 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "taking action on a number of the issues identified", agreeing with some recommendations while disagreeing with others, including on home ownership schemes and the Apprenticeship Levy.
- It "disagrees with the report's assessment that homeownership schemes do not provide good value for money", citing independent evaluations and its own evaluation of Help to Buy.
- On older people's housing, it is launching a new taskforce "this year", chaired by the Minister for Housing, to look at better choice, quality and security of housing.
- It does "not intend to set out a proportion" of Affordable Homes Programme funding for social housing, though "around half" of the affordable homes are to be for social and affordable rent.
- On the Apprenticeship Levy it says it has "no plans to review" it. On planning fees it is "exploring options" to increase them, and on local plans it will make an announcement "in due course".