A housing scheme piloted by Redbridge LBC to help the elderly downsize their properties to help solve local housing needs has received support from the Department for Communities and Local government.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Housing minister Grant Shapps said councils should replicate the example of the council’s ‘Freespace’ project, which offers vital support for elderly families to move to more suitable accommodation without selling their properties.
Under the scheme, councils would take over and maintain tenancies as well as renting out properties at affordable rates to help young families.
Designed to draw on the use of social impact bonds- using private sector investment for public schemes in exchange for socially benefiting financial returns- pensioners can then use profits from rental incomes on their former homes handed back by councils to pay for improvements to their new homes.
Mr Shapps told the Daily Telegraph: ‘For too long the housing needs of the elderly have been neglected. Older people who should be enjoying their homes have watched helplessly as their properties have become prisons, and many have been forced to sell their homes and move into residential care.
Praising the benefits of the project for the elderly tenants, he added: ‘They can live independently for longer and enjoy more disposable income without selling their home, and other families can benefit from living in an affordable home.’
