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London LIN
5th December 2013
Older Peoples Housing in Royal Greenwich
Gill Ackrill
Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Housing
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Background
• In 2007 the Council published its Housing Strategy for Older
People
• Most people want to stay independent in their own home for as
long as possible
• Lot of older people living in larger family homes – no longer
suitable for their needs
• Older people want to avoid hospital or residential care, many
prefer mainstream housing rather than sheltered housing
• Some people need Extra Care housing as an alternative to
residential care
• Range of provision in Royal Greenwich – Council owned,
registered providers & alms-houses – about 1900 in total
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Strategic approach
• Cross authority approach to identify current and future need
• Review carried out of existing Council schemes to identify if they
meet the needs of current and future residents
• Identified gaps in provision
• Improved relationship with RPs and alms-houses – coordinating
group established
• Early meetings with developers & RPs to plan new provision
• Project group to coordinate all activity – reviews progress and
lessons learned
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What are we doing?
• Developed Extra Care homes:
• Remodelled Richard Neve House (Plumstead) - 43 homes
• Lakeview with Gallions in Thamesmead – 58 homes
• Royal Military Academy (Shooters Hill) – 60 homes
• Decommissioning 7 sheltered schemes because they are not
suitable for longer term sheltered housing – 240 properties in
total
• Bringing 16 Sheltered schemes up to modern standards
• Developing new senior living homes – with waiting list
developed to ensure targeted marketing for local people
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Extra Care homes
• Greenwich had no Extra Care housing prior to 2009
• All schemes developed meet high level specification with space to
bring in services and support as needed
• One care provider across all 3 schemes – consistent approach
• Provide low, medium and high levels of care dependent on each
residents needs
• People can move in with relatively low levels of support needs but
more support can be provided if and when they need it.
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Lakeview
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Richard Neve House
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Royal Military Academy
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Decommissioning 7 RBG schemes
Why review?
• Changing expectations of people wanting sheltered housing
• All 7 schemes have more than 50% bedsits, most have shared
bathing facilities
• Conversion to self-contained homes unfeasible & expensive
• Higher level of refusal rate by applicants because of the above
• Therefore high level of voids throughout the year – some over
20%
• Location and other factors make them less popular
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Bringing 16 Sheltered schemes up to modern
standards
• Programme of works being developed for remaining Council
schemes to bring them up to a better standard – 650 homes
• Fire safety works done as a priority
• Consultation taking place with residents in individual schemes on
timescales and types of works – lot of Decent Homes type works
already being done.
• Carrying out works to schemes where feasible to create 1 beds from
bedsits with shared bathing.
• Consultation took place with residents about scheme managers – as
a result we have improved the service :
• all schemes have day time manager cover but not resident
warden
• Floating support at weekends
• Increasing & improving provision in schemes by converting scheme
manager flats into additional sheltered accommodation
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Developing new senior living schemes
• Lot of Council general needs homes have older people who want
to move somewhere smaller, more manageable but are of a high
quality
• When consulted some older people said they wanted dedicated
over 55s housing but not traditional sheltered
• People liked the idea of some communal facilities and local
services which would be available to wider group of older people
• opportunities to get together and provide mutual support
• Also said would like to see more opportunities for shared
ownership and/or discounted sale for people wanting to down-size
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New schemes built
• Hambledown Road - 7 x 2bed bungalows in Eltham – LANB
programme
• Eltham Baths – London & Quadrant - 22 x 1 & 2 bed rented homes
• Kidbrooke – Halton Court - Viridian - 150 x 1 & 2 bed rented, and
20 shared ownership units.
Schemes in development – completing 2015
• Royal Arsenal – Viridian - 67 rented, 48 shared ownership & 50
discounted sale
• Mabel Polley – 37 x 1 & 2 bed homes
• LANB garage sites - 26 x 2 bed bungalows
• Longer term – looking at HRA land opportunities
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Kidbrooke Senior living
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Eltham Baths
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Hambledown Road
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Accessing senior living schemes
• Developed a waiting list for all new senior living schemes in the
Borough
• Open mornings held to increase awareness, adverts in local
press
• Priorities for the new homes are:
– Council tenants over 55 who want to downsize from a family home
– People being rehoused from the sheltered decommissioned
schemes & Woolwich Estates
– RSL tenants over 55 wanting to downsize
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Lessons being learned
• 1-1 support key
• Needs comprehensive package for moves
• Affordability key - need a range of housing types to meet income
needs – not all older people are on benefits
• Probably need more 1 beds than 2s – particularly for people
caught by under occupation charge
• Sometimes need to be flexible with allocations
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More information:
Gill Ackrill
Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Housing Services
[email protected]
020 8921 5630
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