Nottingham ’s pioneering approach to providing homes for older people could be part of a Government push to develop more across the country.
Nottingham City Homes’ (NCH) Director of Housing and Customer Services, Gill Moy, gave evidence to a Government Select Committee inquiry on housing for older people about how the Building a Better Nottingham programme is tackling the issue.
She explained that, on behalf of the City Council, NCH has built 58 bungalows, 31 are under construction, and a further eight are planned.
She also outlined how NCH is helping to deliver an innovative Hospital to Home project which helps people out of hospital quicker, or prevents them going into hospital in the first place. Run in partnership with Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Nottingham City Council and Nottingham CityCare Partnership (NCCP), the project has so far avoided 48 unnecessary hospital admissions, rehoused 129 people and helped improve their health and has made £930,000 worth of savings to housing, health and adult social care services.
Following Ms Moy’s evidence, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee has concluded that a national strategy for older people’s housing is needed to bring together and improve policy in this area, and has produced a report, Housing for Older People .
The Committee encourages the development of more housing for older people, and recommends that councils identify a target proportion of new housing to be developed for this purpose.
Gill says, “We were invited to go to the Inquiry because the Committee wanted to find out more about what we are delivering for older people in Nottingham. It was a great opportunity to showcase both the areas of Building a Better Nottingham, and the Hospital to Home initiative.”
Councillor Graham Chapman, Deputy Leader of Nottingham City Council, says, “ We ’re leading the way when it comes to building homes for older people in Nottingham and want to see private developers following our lead to supply more. We hope the Government will listen to NCH and others and allow further development of housing for older people, which also has the benefit of freeing up more family housing for other Nottingham households.”
Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said: “The right kind of housing can help people stay healthy and support them to live independently…The green paper must consider the range of housing for older people, from mainstream and accessible homes to supported and extra care housing.”
