The Scottish Government

Age

Peoples' housing needs change throughout their lifetimes. Understanding the needs of differently aged people will help lead policy and research to be more inclusive. Research shows that older people, specifically, have unique needs and issues which must be addressed when thinking about urban planning and housing. Also, new concerns over inter-generational communities and how to better encourage interactions between age groups can be addressed in housing research and policy.

Scottish Executive

• Scoping Study of Older People in Rural Scotland (2003) See Chapter 4: Housing

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

• The Needs & Aspirations of Older People Living in General Housing (2002) Examinined how the needs of older people might affect planning neighbourhoods and individual homes.
• Planning for Older People at the Health/Housing Interface (2000) This analysis shows that more needs to be done to provide adequate services for older people.
• Home-Ownership in Old Age: Financial Benefit or Burden? (1999) There is a view that simply because more older people own their homes, they are financially better off than older people used to be. But 40 per cent of people aged 65 and over are not home-owners, renting can be as cheap and the values of some homes are quite low.
• Older Owner-Occupiers' Perceptions of Home-Ownership (1999) Although surveys show that the great majority of older home-owners prefer to own rather than rent their homes, a more detailed interview study demonstrates that views are complex and that, although they do generally prefer to be owner-occupiers, they see burdens accompanying this status .
• Integrating User Involvement & Multi-Agency Working to Improve Housing for Older People (1997) This study looked at problems of assessment, information provision and planning in the housing system for older people.