Don’t blame the home-blockers!

MY AUNT hoped to downsize but the only places in her price bracket were awful, tiny places. The elderly want to downsize but still need enough space to live.

J. M., by email TODAY’S housing situation is nothing new. When my parents married in 1948, they couldn’t afford a house, and it took them until 1955 — when they had two young children and were in their 30s — before they had saved up enough for a deposit.

J. C., Lytham St Annes, Lancs. RETIREMENT villages are a great idea but offer such poor value for money. If they were run as not-forprofit organisations rather than with sky-high fees, more elderly people would want to live there.

B. P., Norwich. I THINK a measure which would help the housing crisis would be for local authorities to purchase any properties left derelict or unoccupied for longer than a specified time, and put them back into the housing stock.

R. L., Lincoln I LOOKED at downsizing but some smaller places in my area cost more than my four-bedroom home, so I will have to stay where I am.

D. T., Stockton-on-Tees I’VE looked into moving into a retirement apartment, but the high monthly fees and restrictions over your relatives selling your property after you die put it out of reach for most people.

B. S., Lincoln THE housing problem is nothing to do with the elderly. The simple maths is that there are eight million more people in the UK than there were in the Nineties, yet fewer than half a million extra homes have been built to house them.

S. L., Yorkshire THE reality is that it is uneconomic to downsize and that there are not enough smaller houses available to do so. House builders need to concentrate on providing the right type of houses at a price people can afford.

D. L., Sussex I RECENTLY viewed a number of retirement properties for a relative. Most were tiny, badly planned and overpriced as well as being tied up in complex restrictions and leasing arrangements. If the Government wants the elderly to downsize, they need to give them incentives to do so.

D. D., Swindon WE WOULD love to downsize from our four-bedroom home, but there is nothing available. There are no smaller houses or bungalows being built either — only apartment blocks with rip-off monthly charges.

D. P., Bristol.