Hugh Russell reports on a feasibility study considering community led approaches to reforming housing for older people.
To many of those working in housing in Wales, it will likely come as no surprise that the latest census data shows that Wales’s population is ageing (between 2011 and 2021 Wales has seen an increase of 17.7 per cent of people aged 65 and over). Whilst loneliness and isolation are by no means exclusively the preserve of this older generation, their impact on health amongst older people can be profound, adding weight to the already heavy challenges faced by increasingly overburdened health and care colleagues, as well as to those working in housing. New approaches are required to help address the challenges presented across the public sector of ensuring that an increasingly large older population can live healthier, less lonely lives in Wales.
Community led housing (CLH) offers one such response. Research commissioned in the wake of COVID-19 by the UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and completed by a London School of Economics-led research team has led to the conclusion that ‘involvement with CLH as a resident or non-resident group member is associated with reduced loneliness. CLH residents are also more likely to trust neighbours and to feel like they belong in their communities.’
The study, Those little connections: community-led housing and loneliness, tested survey data from CLH residents against that provided by sociable people living in conventional housing, finding that the CLH residents felt better connected to their communities, with one participant stating that CLH ‘helps increase co-operation, mutual aid, and general interconnectedness of people’.
Working with sector experts Keith Edwards and Lorraine Morgan, Cwmpas’ Communities Creating Homes team and Torfaen-based housing association Bron Afon are currently working on a feasibility study building on this learning and focussing on how such benefits can be unlocked by the social housing sector in Wales. Funded by UK Government through SBRI – the Small Business and Research Initiative – the collaborative project specifically aims to produce a feasibility study of the delivery of cohousing for older people (to include intergenerational living) by social landlords in Wales, initially in Torfaen but with Wales-wide applicability.
We are considering cohousing specifically of all forms of CLH, as it is a well-established route to delivery of effective, supportive communities. There exist great examples of communities that live in cohousing settings elsewhere in the UK, such as London’s New Ground Cohousing or the highly energy efficient Lancaster Cohousing, which could provide inspiration for our approach in Wales.
As well as further developing the UK Government-funded work mentioned above, this study fits neatly in line with Welsh Government’s programme for government commitment to expanding CLH in Wales, along with Cwmpas’ strategic goals and Bron Afon’s status as a mutual social enterprise with a history of supporting co-operatives.
The scope of the work is intended to take a two-track approach, based on discussions in the early stages of the project. Track 1 will consider the remodelling of existing sheltered homes, meeting an existing need in RSLs across Wales (particularly stock transfer organisations). Track 2 will consider new build co-housing, which will ensure availability of options that remodelling can’t; will lead to more inspiring exemplar sites (crucial to encouraging wider take-up); and means fewer compromises, allowing for greater input from prospective residents and meaning it’s closer to the aims of cohousing than remodelling will allow for, in some cases.
Our work has so far involved consultations with stakeholders working in the fields of housing, health and care for older people, to gather insights into what should be considered in future co-housing developments, as well as existing Bron Afon tenants. We will move on to discuss the concept with potential future residents of co-housing in Torfaen to establish their needs, aspirations and concerns about where and how they will live in older age.
A further aspect of the study will see us developing technical insights such as planning, and architectural design, to ensure that the final study is of immediate practical value to housing associations and other bodies considering the development of cohousing with community groups.
The feasibility study is due for release in Spring 2023 and the hope is that it will contribute to a shift toward a more community-focussed approach to the development of housing for older people in Wales in the years to come.
Hugh Russell is project manager of Communities Creating Homes at Cwmpas. For more information contact him on hugh.russell@cwmpas.coop