**8. Older people's perspectives**

What, then, do older people themselves think about this? Prescribing solutions will never work without their buy-in. Quite simply, if older people had more say in the decision-making processes that affect their lives, many of the issues I've covered here could be resolved.

I am one of the one of Older People's Housing Champions appointed by Care & Repair England, a national network of older activists and sector specialists who have for the last decade or so worked to improve housing and related services for our ageing population – primarily by acting as sounding boards for public and private sector bodies including national Government.

One of our tasks has been to generate a "manifesto" [35] of the actions we believe would make the biggest contribution to ensuring older people can live independently as long as possible in homes that are safe, warm, comfortable and accessible. Because so many people live (and continue to live) in mainstream housing, part of our focus is on adapting and maintaining existing housing stock; but we also have strong views on future housing too. These are the key tenets of that manifesto:


Older people, then, know what they want… but their needs are not currently being addressed. Why is this latter point so important? Because unless you create housing that older people want to live in, they will not move there. Yet still you see developers applying for consents with no consultations with local people on what they might want to buy or rent. The result is all too often rejection at the planning stage or developments struggling to fill up.
