“JUST stick me a care home,” my mum always said, not wanting to be a burden.
Now we have experience of care homes and the difficulties of arranging accommodation on a state pension - thanks to an elderly uncle we unexpectedly found in our care - it’s “Never stick me in a care home.”
The care home is a good fit but my great uncle still struggles to settle. The NHS says keeping someone in their home, rather than moving them to residential care, can save £30,000 per person per year.
There are only 36,000 sheltered or very sheltered houses in Scotland yet a YouGov survey found a third of older Scots would downsize if there was a suitable property to move to - this would release homes with a combined value of £30billion on to the housing market.
At the other end of the generational spectrum, Shelter, the housing charity, says parents have gifted around £850m a year on rent and £150million a year on moving costs to their children. The fabled Bank of Mum and Dad, according to Legal and General research, will finance 25 per cent of all mortgage transactions in 2016.
By 2008 the number of new homes being built had fallen to its lowest peacetime level since 1924 – and house building is still in recovery, triggering the oft-mentioned housing crisis.
In October, the housing minister, Gavin Barwell, drew scoffs when he suggested parents should leave their houses to their grandchildren to help them get on the property ladder. Nice solution, if you have wealthy grandparents.
In the same week, the prime minister, Theresa May, described the UK’s housing market as “dysfunctional” in a speech to the party conference.
As would-be homeowners can’t afford to buy, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) warns the UK faces a shortfall of 1.8m rental properties.
There are also more and more of us choosing to live alone. The most recent ONS data says 28 per cent of the UK’s 26.7m households contain one person. Atomised living causes an environmental burden - millions of washing machines and fridges and televisions running.
There must be a better way.
Housebuilders look to make a profit, rather than build homes. House buyers look to make a profit, rather than buy a home.
In Maryhill, Glasgow, activists are looking to set up a co-housing model based on community spirit rather than financial advancement.
Instead of viewing property as a long-term investment, members want to create a sustainable, collegiate lifestyle.
Co-housing, which began in Denmark in the 1960s to help young families share childcare, sees residents have their own homes yet share amenities such as gardens, laundry and dining spaces. Glasgow already has the Penington project, in Pollokshields, which will be the first communal living scheme of its kind in Scotland and is designed for over-55s.
Collective living: where the elderly have company, childcare’s on hand and there’s always someone to share your tea. Financial burdens are lessened, housing is affordable and the environmental pressure of modern living is eased.
Will it take off? It’s had five decades to do so but now, with the current housing and financial crises, we might find ourselves with less choice about how we live.
Something has to change and this sounds like the better way.
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