Cheshire well placed in provision of housing for senior living sector

New research has identified that local authorities in Cheshire are in the top 10 opportunity areas ripe for development of seniors’ housing across England.

Property consultancy Knight Frank and law firm Irwin Mitchell have distinguished areas where there is clear potential for senior living to develop, as well as those areas where local factors are creating a barrier to progress.

Their report names Cheshire West as a top 10 development opportunity hot spot for private senior and affordable senior living accommodation.

In addition to this, Cheshire East is ranked in the top 10 for affordable senior living accommodation.

Developing suitable housing will be essential given that the country has an ageing demographic and people are living longer.

By 2037, it is forecast that one in four people in the country will be over 65.

These ‘best in class’ local authorities meet the needs of the UK’s ageing population by allocating sites for seniors’ housing in their local plans, adopting a supportive planning policy that recognises many key stakeholders have a role to play in meeting the housing needs of seniors, and taking a supportive position on CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy).

Highlighting the successes in Cheshire, the study states that in Cheshire West and Chester, the council’s key planning policies expressly recognise and allow for a wide variety of retirement-focused development.

This ranges from the provision of ‘downsizer’ accommodation to extra-care developments and residential care facilities.

The policies don’t attempt to prescribe the types of use class that these developments might fall into and this has led to an increase in supply, with almost 1,100 apartments delivered in 19 schemes in the past 10 years across affordable and private housing, including Gifford Lea by Inspired Villages and Boughton Hall by Enterprise Retirement Living.

Lauren Harwood, head of senior living research at Knight Frank, said: “This research is released against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed a particular spotlight on people in their later life.

“This has made it clear there is a need for local authorities to put plans in place to ensure there is a suitable, age-appropriate choice of housing for seniors.

“There is currently a huge supply and demand imbalance of senior housing in England, which is widening amidst a growing and ageing population. It is vital to increase the provision of seniors housing.

“This is part of the solution to create more capacity in the social care system while also supporting the wider housing market.

“With that in mind, it is crucial that developers understand where the opportunities are, and how they can access these to help meet the needs of our seniors.”

Despite this, some local authorities are not sufficiently planning suitable accommodation for their ageing population.

Nicola Gooch, planning partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: “We need all local authorities to take the same approach if we are to unlock the potential of senior housing in England.

“There has been a marked improvement in the number of local authorities planning for seniors housing in recent years, but there is still a long way to go before the necessary support is in place to deliver our population’s elderly housing needs in full.”

Irwin Mitchell carried out a similar survey in 2017, which ranked local authorities between ‘A’ and ‘D’.

In 2017, 62% received a ‘D’ ranking, meaning the local authority did not have any specific planning policies in place for senior housing.

A repeat of the survey in 2020 found that 161 (50%) are still in the ‘D’ category.

While this represents a small improvement, the number of councils not planning for an ageing population remains significant.

However, the number of ‘A’ rated authorities that have a clear planning policy for seniors’ housing has almost doubled – from 9.7% of the survey in 2017 to 18.6% in 2020.

Both Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester have been Graded an ‘A’ by the Irwin Mitchell planning research – but they are still the exception rather than the norm.

Nicola Gooch said: “Despite some improvement it is extremely disappointing to see that 50% of local authorities in England have neither a useful planning policy nor site allocations in their local plans to provide for such accommodation.

“Local authorities have moved forward in the past three years – but only by very little steps, and certainly not fast enough to cover the demographic shifts. The current patchwork approach to local plans is holding back the development of the sector and needs to end.

“A national and local policy framework that works to promote a uniform and supportive approach to senior housing is required.”

Lauren Harwood said: “One of the clearest demographic changes in our country is the ageing population and it is worrying that we are not doing enough yet to address this.

“Not only for our older population, but also because encouraging downsizing and moves to appropriate housing has been shown to benefit society more broadly.

“Studies have shown that moving to appropriate seniors’ housing releases more family housing into the market and delays or reduces the likelihood of ‘crisis events’, such as falls, which trigger health interventions by the NHS and, in many cases, move into institutional care facilities.

“It is time for both central and local government to take the demographic shift seriously and start planning at the very basic local plan level for our ageing population.”