EAC teams up to arm MPs with evidence of local need for retirement housing

Published on Wednesday 16th of April 2025

The case for ramping up the supply of specialist housing for older people has never been stronger. Whilst our population continues to age fast, building of new sheltered, retirement and extra care housing fell in 2024 to its lowest level for decades – just 6,000 properties UK-wide. Meanwhile 2,000 older properties in 22 locations were ‘decommissioned’ during the same year.

So on 1st April EAC teamed up with the trade organisation Retirement Housing Group (RHG) to invite MPs to a demonstration in Westminster of our new mapping tool which can zoom into any Constituency in the country, show what’s available down to street level, and estimate how much more is needed there. Click here to try it yourself

In the aftermath of last year’s Older People’s Housing Taskforce report, and in the context of Government’s commitment to building 1½ million new homes during the current parliament, momentum is building fast around the call for at least 10% of these to be ‘age friendly’ homes. The Westminster event aimed to provide MPs with evidence of gaps within their own constituencies.

Parallel innovations are exploring the opportunities, and potential efficiency gains, from ‘age friendly’ neighbourhoods and even towns’. Here the ambition is to knit together resources in both private and public domains to ensure that all older people have manageable access to what they need – be it a park, a pub, a pharmacy or a bus service.  Innovative work on this front is being done by Prof. Les Mayhew in partnership with Colligo Labs, and we’re looking at what contribution EAC’s specialist housing supply data could make to this.