Our plan to provide the best housing for older people

Work in partnership with Health and Registered Social Landlord (RSL) partners to develop an evidence-based plan for the development of affordable housing for older people, including those living with dementia and a wide range of care needs.

Provide a minimum of 741 new homes for older people by 2030 of which 434 will be Council homes, 207 homes with a Registered Social Landlord and 100 homes for older people to buy, and develop additional proposals as part of our commitment to building 2,000 new homes.

Increase the supply of ‘care ready’ housing for older people that is suitable for ageing in place and which allows care at home to be provided.

Work with Registered Social Landlord partners to understand the condition of older persons housing in the city and its potential future use. Review all Council “age designated” properties to improve accessibility.

Continue to refurbish our sheltered housing stock on a scheme by scheme basis, securing Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) accreditation for refurbished schemes.

• Provide specialist housing advice for older people, to help them understand their housing options.
  
  
• Ensure that advice and information is available on our websites, in Hubs and through information events.
  
  
• Support people with disabilities to access adapted properties. 
  
  
• Actively promote Extra Care Housing as an alternative to residential care and as a step down from hospital.
  
  
• Allow exchanges between social tenants through information held on the Housing Waiting List. 
  
  
• Support older people to downsize to more appropriate accommodation.​

• Continue to develop the Independent Living Service to help older people remain independent at home and work with the Welsh Government to ensure that funding for this is maintained.

• Continue our commitment to provide adaptations for disabled people to ensure that older people can remain independent at home.

• Better reflect the housing choices and social needs of older people within the social housing allocation policy, taking into account social isolation, support networks and community. Ensure the policy supports those who wish to downsize.

• Work to understand how religion affects housing need.

• ​Improve allocation of older persons’, extra care and adapted accommodation, increasing the information available about individual wants and needs and ensuring those most in need are prioritised.

• Review the provision of support in sheltered schemes to ensure it meets the future needs of the older population and explore the opportunity to upgrade some existing sheltered housing schemes to “Sheltered Plus” or “Extra Care Light”, to a greater level of need.

• Develop new models of care, support and nursing services which enable people to remain in their own homes and provide the highest standard of care homes for people with the most complex needs.

• Further explore the use of new technology to help people remain independent at home for longer.

• We will check floating support cases to fully understand the individual support needs of those with mental health issues.