PM must build back better for the elderly
Ex-Cabinet giants at helm of drive to boost retirement communities
POLITICAL juggernauts Ken Clarke and David Blunkett are leading a charge for more purpose-built hamlets that will transform the lives and health of older people.
They will today urge Boris Johnson to hire a task force to make the UK a world leader in socalled housing with care.
These specialist retirement communities allow pensioners to remain independent and in their own homes, either as owners or tenants.
They also offer on-site restaurants, gyms and 24-hour staffing, alongside care services that can help residents with everyday tasks such as dressing and washing.
The hamlets will usually include NHS GPs and other health professionals and private services.
Lord Clarke, 80 – former Tory Chancellor and Health Secretary – and retired Labour Home Secretary Lord Blunkett, 73, are leading a coalition of more than 30 experts including MPs, charities and campaigners.
They say the nation’s crisis-ridden social care system desperately needs bold initiatives for the rapidly rising number of older people.
The campaigners believe a decade of building modern retirement housing would transform healthy ageing, drastically reduce pressure on the NHS – and tackle loneliness.
Their move comes after the pandemic left many too scared to move into traditional care homes and follows the PM’s declared intent for the UK to “build back better”.
In an exclusive joint article for The Daily Express, Lords Blunkett and Clarke insist that there is “overwhelming societal, political, commercial and public support for change in social care”.
And in an open letter to Mr Johnson, the coalition claim a massive retirement housing project would bring £100billion worth of economic growth and create 40,000 jobs.
The pioneering hamlets would also save the NHS and social care systems billions and free more than 100,000 much needed homes for families to move in.
Around 35,000 residents have died to date following a decision at the start of the pandemic to discharge elderly patients from hospitals into care homes without Covid tests.
The coronavirus disaster has also highlighted the lack of rights residents face. Some have been evicted at short notice because they have broken rules on “window visits”.
John Tonkiss, chief executive of retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone, said: “The pandemic has shone a harsh light on the UK’s failing social care system.
“For too long we have been forcing older people to choose between their family home and a care home.We must take this opportunity to provide the housing options they need.
“Over the last 12 months our retirement communities – a third way to live in later life – have kept our customers safe and well, seeing significantly lower levels of Covid-19 than in wider society. It’s now vital the
Government takes the necessary steps to help our sector build the retirement communities we need.
“We want to see a dedicated retirement community task force established to address the challenges that exist.” Eighty-five per cent of housing with care operators polled in a recent survey reported a significant boost in interest in their developments.
However, just 0.6 per cent of people over 65 in Britain have the opportunity to live in one.
By contrast, New Zealand, Australia and America have between five and six per cent of that age group living in similar purpose-built communities. The campaigners’ letter to the Prime Minister says: “UK provision to only a third of these levels would result in more than a £100billion of economic activity, create 40,000 jobs, save the NHS and social care systems billions of pounds and see more than 100,000 family homes freed up.”
Nick Sanderson, chairman of Associated Retirement Community Operators (Arco), is one of the key figures putting their name to the letter.
Arco says it wants 250,000 older people living in retirement hamlets by the end of the decade.
Mr Sanderson said: “When it comes to social care it is clear that more of the same is not going to suffice.
“Alongside care homes and home care, we need to quickly expand the housing with care
options available to older people so they can live independently while having access to the best care and support.”
Mr Sanderson added: “The Covid-19 crisis has only made this more urgent.We know finding a solution to the social care funding question has been pushed back to next year, but the expansion of provision must start now.”
Professor Les Mayhew, of the Business School, is also research head at the International Longevity Centre – UK.
He said: “The overwhelming evidence is that we have nowhere near enough retirement housing to meet the needs of our ageing population, especially housing with care.
“Many older people are interested in downsizing but the lack of supply prevents the freeing up of under-occupied family homes that would hugely benefit younger generations, including first-time buyers.
“Unblocking the current logjam must be a priority if we are to solve the housing crisis and meet the social care needs of an ageing population.
“A cross-government task force to help break down the institutional barriers would be win-win for us all – the young, old and everyone in between.”
The experts’ letter says: “Proposals for social care funding reform have been repeatedly pushed back, but we say that expanding social care options must start now by creating a world-class system of housing with care. Crucially, this would be a low-cost initiative at a time when the Government has been spending to fight Covid-19 and boost the economy.” Conservative MP Damian Green, who chairs the All-Party Group for Longevity, said: “We need the swift formation of a housing with care task force. This is not a party political point – it is about doing what is right for the future livelihoods of older people in this country.”
Last week Mr Johnson said the longdelayed proposals for social care reform would be unveiled later this year.
OUR rulers like to proclaim that we live in a uniquely progressive, enlightened age. Yet through their epic cowardice dressed up as cultural sensitivity, they are allowing dangerous fanaticism to flourish in our midst.
While they mouth their slogans about tolerance, their failure to stand up for British freedoms is stoking the flames of intolerance.
That pattern is graphically illustrated by the furore at Batley Grammar School in Yorkshire over the decision by a religious studies teacher to show a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed during a classroom discussion about blasphemy.
This provoked fury from many local Muslims who considered the cartoon offensive. Amid protests, imam Mohammed Amin Pandor, of the ultra-conservative Deobandi branch of Islam, declared that “what happened is totally unacceptable”.
The school had to close for two days. The teacher himself was not only suspended but has been forced into hiding with 24-hour police protection. Despite a 48,000-signature petition for his reinstatement, it is hard to see how he will be able to return to his job.
SOME argue that, given the highly-charged nature of this issue, he should have been more cautious, more deferential to Muslim feelings, though we do not know the context of the lesson. Whatever the truth, it is outrageous that such a reaction can occur in our 21st-century civilisation.
The contempt for liberty is like something from a despotic regime rather than modern Britain. Ours is a democracy, not a theocracy. Heresy trials should have no part in our education system.
Batley Grammar is not an Islamic institution, nor is any part of our public life governed by Sharia Law. One protester demanded the teacher be
“prosecuted”, but the blasphemy laws were abolished in Britain in 2008.
Another wailed “we can’t use the expression ‘freedom of speech’ to offend people”. But a ban on giving offence to any adherents of a faith or cause is a recipe for Orwellian thought crimes. In our free society, no religion should be above scrutiny, criticism or debate.
What makes this saga more disturbing is that most of the authorities have refused to challenge the zealots.
Leading the charge to submission was the school’s headteacher Gary Kibble, who issued an “unequivocal and sincere” apology rather than standing by his embattled member of staff.
Equally pusillanimous was the local Labour MP Tracy Brabin who said, “I welcome the school’s apology and recognition of the offence caused.”
The National Education Union, usually so quick to shriek about their members’ rights over Covid or pay or “Tory cuts”, has maintained a pathetic silence in the face of the Batley protesters, claiming it would be “inappropriate to make further comment” with the matter under investigation.
THIS feebleness when confronted by intolerance, makes a mockery of officialdom’s much-vaunted commitment to equality and diversity. Like all appeasers, the Batley capitulation brigade are motivated by fear, since the language of the protesters has echoes of intimidation. One of the organisers of the protests, Mohamad Sajad Hasan of the local charity Purpose Of Life, issued a statement that revealed
the name of the teacher, demanded he be “permanently removed” and described his behaviour in the classroom as a “sadistic” form of “terrorism to Islam”.
In the same vein yesterday, Adil Shahzad, a Bradford imam, demanded the Government show respect, “otherwise we are not responsible for the actions of some individuals”.
Such warnings might be real, as the recent experience of France demonstrates. Last year, Paris teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a Chechen Muslim after displaying a cartoon of the Prophet in a lesson. In 2015, 12 people in the capital were killed by Islamist terrorists after satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo carried cartoons of the Prophet.
Such barbarity should be a cue for courage rather than cowering. The fundamentalists must not be allowed to dictate the terms of our public discourse or education. Their victory will be a disaster for pluralism and openness.
A recent survey found 76 per cent of Muslims think Britain is a “good place to live” because of its “freedom of religion”.
If our leaders continue to cave in, then that spirit will be lost forever. Toxic identity politics, possibly backed by a hint of menace, will have triumphed over reason.
‘No religion should be above scrutiny, criticism or debate’