By Neil Tiley, Senior Director of Planning at Pegasus Group
The UK faces a critical shortage of specialist housing for older people. Yet, despite clear national recognition of the problem, the planning system has fallen short of addressing this hidden crisis that is now putting pressure on significant numbers of older citizens.
In our work at Pegasus Group, we have seen first-hand the consequences of this systemic failure. Unless we reverse course soon, the gap between need and delivery will only widen.
What does Older People’s Housing look like?
Government guidance has been unequivocal for years. As far back as 2019, National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG) described the need for senior homes as ‘critical.’
But what qualifies as a specialist home for the elderly? The NPPG has answered that already– a spectrum of homes that include:
- Age-restricted general market homes
- Retirement and sheltered housing
- Extra-care housing or housing-with-care
- Residential and nursing care homes
The guidance has also said local plans must provide specialist housing where a need exists. It is our experience at Pegasus Group, however, that specialist elderly accommodation has either not been planned for at alls across the UK, or the response has been insufficient compared to real-world need.
The social and health benefits of housing for older people
Considering this unresolved need for housing older people, the Government appointed an Older People’s Housing Taskforce in May 2023. That taskforce confirmed the worst in a 2024 report: the status quo is unsustainable.
At just 5,000-7,000 elderly homes annually, the UK is severely underdelivering the estimated need of 30,000 – 50,000. It’s a missed opportunity to ease pressure on stretched public services. More specifically, these specialist homes:
- Offer older residents more appropriate and adaptable homes
- Help older people live independently for longer and strengthens communities by reducing isolation
- Reduce costs to the social care and health systems
- Improve the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of older people
- Reduce the chance of needing long-term care which provides significant benefits to the public purse
- Reduce the incidence of slips, trips, and falls.
- Release much needed currently under-occupied housing to address the needs of the younger population
What’s holding local plans back?
The real question is this: why are the plans falling short? It merits a thorough diagnosis, and our insights at Pegasus Group align closely with what the Taskforce has already reported.
- Unclear and inconsistent ways of assessing needs: There is no standard national methodology or consensus on evidencing the need. While Local Planning Authorities (LPA) often have good intentions, their existing toolkits usually underestimate demand by a large margin.
- Benefits are routinely undervalued: Housing needs assessments often give insufficient weight to the social and economic gains delivered by later-living schemes. This means specialist housing usually loses out to more familiar mainstream housing types.
- Misconceptions among decision-makers: Some authorities fear that older people’s schemes will lead to an influx of senior citizens, putting stress on local health and care provision. In reality, the vast majority of occupants are already local and registered with local GPs, so there is no additional pressure created. Even if there was, this need would exist and be more pronounced with older people remaining in their existing often unsuitable accommodation.
- Low public awareness: Many older people are unaware of the range of housing options available, reducing demand signals that would otherwise influence local policy.
- The appeal system is becoming a default route: Because local plans are not sufficiently providing homes for older people, developers are relying more on the appeals system, where Planning Inspectors tend to more often recognise the national evidence of need. Our own appeals work at Pegasus Group backs up this trend, but appeals are costly, slow, and unsustainable as a primary delivery mechanism.
What needs to change: Standardised definition and better incentives for Older People’s Housing
To deliver on older people’s housing, the Government must act quickly to:
- Establish a standardised definition of Older People’s Homes: There must be a clear national terminology that can easily be understood by both policymakers and the wider public. Local authorities need a consistent and robust methodology that reflects the true scale of demand and the full spectrum of provision.
- Incentivise a wider range of delivery models: From age-restricted homes to extra-care communities, we need to rapidly increase the supply of a range of forms of specialist housing to meet the specific needs of individuals.
- Require dedicated site allocations in local plans: Without allocated land, delivery will continue to depend on appeals. Plans must earmark enough sites to meet the full breadth of older people’s housing.
- Expand delivery at scale: The ultimate goal must be a dramatic increase in output, from thousands of units a year to tens of thousands at a national scale.
Specialist homes for older people cannot be an optional add-on; they must be a cornerstone of a sustainable and equitable housing system. But delivering them needs specialist partners like Pegasus Group who understand the market and how to unlock sites that others can’t.
Our team has supported schemes across the country to help both local authorities and developers navigate the complexities of the planning system to provide for older people’s housing with confidence. We help quantify the need, assemble robust evidence, secure land, and negotiate a clear path through planning – whether through local plan engagement or through appeals.
If you’re working to bring forward older people’s housing — whether you’re a local authority, landowner, operator, or developer — get in touch with Pegasus Group to learn how we can support you.