Why don’t we design our houses to give granny a home with the family?

Lesley Mcleod is puzzled by the lack of flexibility and planning for old age

We’re none of us getting any younger so, when I moved back to Edinburgh, I chose as far as possible to future-proof my life by buying a new-build flat close to the centre.

Improvements to building regulations meant I knew I would have step-free access and toilet and washing facilities on the level. It’s great to have restaurants, bars and theatres almost literally on my doorstep. Certainly, with the capital’s excellent buses, everything is within easy reach.

But I need no support and I’ve fondly assumed I won’t, or will be able to afford it at home. I’ve taken my cue from my mum who is, let’s be honest, knocking on a bit. Apart from the limiting effect macular degeneration has had on her ability to get out and about independently, she’s hale and hearty and keen to continue enjoying life. We’re off on holiday in May and we travel widely throughout Europe. There’s Barcelona, with its late-night tapas bars and Athens, where we have a favourite taverna in the picturesque Plaka area of the historic centre. We love the markets, the music and the occasional jug of local wine.

And no one bats an eyelid. When you look around it never seems odd to see groups made up of many layered generations. There are grannies and tiny tots. Slicked back boy racers in high-top trainers and suit- ed businessmen. What you don’t get are geriatric-ghettos or girl-gangs where everyone keeps to themselves and their immediate peer group. To me it seems to have a civilising and humanising effect.

I like the mix – but it also highlights concerns I have with the way we’re planning the towns of the future. As the chief executive of the Association for Project Safety, I am in the fortunate position of working with professionals involved with design and construction. Among other things my members are concerned about how we, as a nation, will build and use our homes.

They are involved in the current debate about housing shortages, the need for new homes and the natural focus on younger people wanting to get on the housing ladder. But there is also talk about trading down which seems – to some people, like Mum – like an effort to guilt people out of building ‘family’ homes.

Perhaps older people – or people with special housing needs – don’t want to move or be tidied away.

Whatever happened to mixed communities? It cannot be healthy for society to have such a segregated approach to town planning that people end up migrating, like wildebeest to a waterhole, from place to place as they move through life until age and frailty forces them to stop.

Two examples brought this to mind.