Anchor Trust: baby-boomers will reshape older people’s services

Housing and care services for older people will undergo a “revolution” driven by the increased spending power and expectations of the post-war baby boom generation, according to housing charity the Anchor Trust.

In its Anchor 2020: Meeting the challenges of older people’s housing and care report released this week, Anchor supports the government’s personalisation agenda and called for the development of higher-quality and more consumer-oriented services for older people.

Demand for bedsit-style sheltered housing, which makes up about 40% of the trust’s housing stock, has been declining as they are seen as “increasingly undesirable” by baby-boomers, Anchor said. It indicated that it would be expanding its more costly private services and move into selling adapted housing to meet higher expectations.

By 2020 there will be more than 3 million more people over the age 65 in the UK, many of them increasingly frail, figures cited in the report showed. The report warned that during the next 10 to 15 years children would be less likely to look after their older relatives and that informal care would not keep pace with rising demand.

Chief executive John Belcher said: “Providers and commissioners have to be ready to meet much higher expectations and more complex needs in the future. We want to create a future where old age matters and where older people’s housing and lifestyle choices are respected and provided for.”

The report leads on from the government’s National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society, released earlier this year, and the Wanless review of social care.

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