Older people who are “rattling around” in their large homes will be encouraged to downsize to free up space for first-time buyers who want to start families, the housing minister has said.
Chris Pincher said that four in ten homes were too big for their owners, as he promised to introduce plans to encourage developers to build more properties for pensioners.
He said that Michael Gove, the communities secretary, was in discussion with the Department of Health and Social Care about ways to encourage housebuilders to deliver more homes designed for assisted living.
Experts believe that there are 3 million pensioners who cannot downsize because of a lack of suitable housing. Industry figures have called for a stamp duty cut for over-60s in order to to encourage them to move out of their more spacious homes.
Pincher told peers on the Built Environment Committee that it was up to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to determine whether those considering downsizing could be given incentives with tax breaks as he laid out the scale of the problem.
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“In the early 1990s something like 31 per cent of properties were under-occupied — they were too big for the numbers of people rattling around inside them. Now that percentage is 38 per cent,” he said.
“There is an opportunity to encourage downsizing, to encourage the growth of the later living sector in order to free up homes in the middle of the market — two and three bedroom semis — so those properties can be moved into.”
Pincher said that Gove was looking at ways “to identify and remove barriers to the development of the later living sector” but refused to commit to tax cuts.
“I’m keen to make sure we look at all the barriers that exist,” he said.
He pointed to the government’s Affordable Homes Programme, which stipulates that 10 per cent of houses delivered must be for supported living, as evidence that ministers were committed to tackling the issue. However, experts have estimated that only 7,000 new homes designed for the elderly are being built a year.
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Some care providers have begun constructing retirement villages in an effort to address the issue, with luxury communities even offering shared facilities such as spas, swimming pools and cinemas.
In other countries, the model has been taken to more extreme lengths. The Hogeweyk, a gated nursing community in the town of Weesp in the Netherlands, treats over 150 people living with severe dementia by disguising the facility as a normal town with its own shop, theatre and hairdressers.
