Erosh member Hanover@50

We are delighted that our long-standing member Hanover is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year.

To celebrate its milestone the organisation is holding The Hanover@50 debate – the future of housing for older people.

Over the last 50 years Hanoverhas been a leader of change in retirement housing, including the development of extra care housing.

To mark its 50th anniversary, the organisation has partnered with ten think tanks from across the political spectrum to look at some of the issues that society faces.

The campaign recognises that the challenges of housing and supporting older people are not new. But there is a need to move the debate on and begin to grasp the nettle of what we need and how to pay for it, as well as getting clarity on what works for older people, their families, our communities and the tax payer.

The questions that need to be asked – and answered – include:

• Are age-specific housing developments a good thing, or do they foster isolation and discrimination?
• Is older age a cause for positive treatment and extra protection? Should older people, for example, be exempt from welfare cuts?
• What’s the best way of using housing assets when younger people are struggling to find suitable accommodation? Should we encourage older people to downsize, and should we find ways to penalise them to if they don’t?
• Is the level of support that older people want and need simply unsustainable?
• Is there a future for retirement housing, or does it only exist because nothing better is on offer?

The launch of The Hanover@50 Debate will see The Fabian Society and Policy Exchange publish their findings. The Fabian Society looks at the income growth of retired households ‘in the middle’ and its policy implications; whilst Policy Exchange considers the impact of a limited and expensive housing supply, and older people not downsizing or moving to alternative provision.

The work of eight other think tanks will be published up until June.

These include Centre for Social Justice, Demos, The Human Cities Institute, IPPR, The International Longevity Centre UK, ResPublica, The Royal Society of the Arts and The Smith Institute.