Letter: Forget recovery buildings, we'll need whole villages

SIR – E. Holtham, of Holbury, writes (Letters, 9th December): “So why not open more buildings to take patients for recovery?”

The problem is likely to get much worse by 2040, as shown in the report issued on 8th December 2022 by the Lords adult social care committee

Campaign group Ageing Well Without Children estimates, therefore, that there are currently around 1.2-million people over the age of 65 ageing without children, which is set to rise to 2-million by 2030.

Research commissioned by the charity Independent Age concluded with a similar estimate: it found that 15% of older people are without children, which represents about 1.5 million people. This number was estimated to reach 4-million by 2040.

Social housing is particularly pressured, with long waiting lists. Over 1-million households are waiting for social homes. Last year, 29,000 social homes were sold or demolished, and less than 7,000 were built.

Witnesses emphasised that the government should increase availability of affordable and social rented housing.

Whilst a large council, BCP currently spends £38.4 per £100 of their total budget on adult social care. This figure is likely to rapidly increase, in real terms, to nearly £100 by 2040 if 40% of older people, then, have no children to look after them.

To stop bed-blocking in hospitals, we need to build large villages of extra care beds, including convalescent hospital beds funded by NHS (say 2,000 or 3,000) plus a large number of social housing units for the key workers (say 15,000) and, say, a mix of private housing (15,000) so we will then have a new town very close to a large town or city with proper community assets like schools, doctors and shops, and where residents are not so dependent on the motor car.

Geoff Bantock,
Christchurch