Date published: 2008/02/25
The BBC says:
Every new home built in England will have to be designed to suit an ageing population, under plans being unveiled by the government.
Ministers want all new homes to include 16 features such as stairs wide enough for stairlifts, downstairs bathrooms, and room for wheelchairs to turn.
The government wants the standards to be adopted from April. If not taken up, they could become compulsory in 2013.
Builders called the plans "costly", but Help the Aged welcomed them.
Age Concern also welcomed the new standards, saying future housing must meet the needs of older people.
Housing minister Caroline Flint says the idea is to build homes which do not need costly adaptations as owners age.
...
All new social housing built from 2011 will have to be built to the new "lifetime homes" standard, and the hope is that private sector houses will also meet it.
This seems like a reasonable enough idea, but the proof is how it will work in practise. Houses have been getting smaller and smaller the last few decades, in particular with smaller and smaller rooms, and also smaller and smaller gardens, partly because the ruling elite have refused to allow enough land to be used for housing, so the price of land has shot up. And not only has everything gotten smaller and smaller but where once almost all homes were two storeys, these days a lot are three storeys, and that is also not good for old people. So hopefully the government will also ensure there is plenty of land available for housing (where people want to live). Meanwhile, these standards might at least ensure that houses do not keep getting smaller and smaller, which would be a worthwhile, if unintended, consequence.
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