The future of retirement
IT has been billed as Scotland’s first purpose-built retirement community and is predicted to change the way people live in their later years when the worries of work are behind them.
Plans have been unveiled for a new village designed to cater to the needs of the over-55s, with all amenities, facilities and services they require right on their doorsteps.
Developers say the £55 million scheme, proposed for Netherplace reservoir in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, would be based on a “vision of active later living”, and would be self-contained and come complete with medical services, leisure facilities and shops within its environs.
And they hope it could become the blueprint for other communities across Scotland if it is given approval when it goes before the local authority for assent later this week.
The Netherplace Retirement Development is the brainchild of property developer Shazad Bakhsh and is being taken forward by the Glasgow and Singapore-based property company Scots bridge Holdings.
It would see the construction of 252 homes on the 17-acre former industrial site, made up of one and two-bedroom flats and cottages alongside a central “clubhouse”.
It would also incorporate a clinic and an 80-bed care home, as well as a fitness suite, spa, restaurant, community spaces and country walks.
Investments would be made in the very latest in information technology to provide the highest standard of support services for residents.
Mr Bakhsh believes Netherplace could become one of the most innovative new communities for over-55s anywhere in the UK, and provide further inward investment to East Renfrewshire.
He said: “Netherplace will be so much than a retirement development, it will create a vibrant new community.
“By incorporating the latest thinking, contemporary design features and activities ranging from yoga to fishing, this development aims to reinvent the concept of retirement living in Scotland.”
Scotland is facing a demographic time bomb in the coming decades, with the number of pensioners expected to soar by almost 30 per cent in the next 25 years to 1.36 million by 2039, according to official figures from the Registers of Scotland.
Meanwhile, the number of over-75s is predicted to rise from 430,000 to about 800,000, while the working population paying taxes to meet the growing cost of public services is predicted to grow by just one per cent.
This will inevitably greatly impact on council budgets and the public purse, but Mr Bakhsh said that similar retirement communities help councils shoulder the burden by having services grouped together.
He said: “We believe this project will ultimately reduce the burden on local authority care provision by providing residents with more intermediate care options.
“This is an opportunity to create a community in the truest sense of the word and tackle preconceptions of what a retirement development can be.
“The placement of these bespoke lifetime homes, with facilities which are second to none, will ensure a higher quality of living.”
He added: “Our professional and experienced team has a vision to modernise the sector and provide a development to both answer demand and exceed expectations.”
An independent economic impact study of the project estimates that the development will support more than 365 permanent jobs during the next 30 years, and contribute more than £74m to the local economy .
It is also hoped that the purpose-built retirement community could help release much-needed housing stock elsewhere by allowing pensioners living in larger homes to downsize.
Netherplace reservoir, which dates back to 1850, will be incorporated into the overall design of the village and stocked with trout for fishing.
Demolition and clearance of the site, a former dye works which last operated in 2003, has already been completed to enable works to begin if planning permission is granted.
The development would be built across the road from Whitecraigs Rugby Club and immediately adjacent to the M77 motorway. A similar scheme was refused in 2015, after objections from the community, social health and care partnership and Glasgow Airport.
Glasgow based practice Jewitt & Wilkie Architects has been appointed to design the development. Founder Jonathan Jewitt said: “We’ve carried out thorough and extensive research on aspirational, high quality homes and engaged with numerous public and private bodies to achieve the optimum scheme proposal.
“This proposal includes a wide variety of unique features which have been subtly future-proofed to cater for the changing needs of residents.
“It is expected that housing currently occupied by one or two persons within the surrounding community will be released into the market for much-needed family housing.”
It aims to reinvent the concept of retirement living in Scotland