Care minister warns of sheltered housing 'market failure'

He said yesterday there were very few ‘players in the market’ willing to develop specialised housing for older people despite ‘burgeoning demand’.

He made the comments during a Q&A session after speaking in London at the launch of a report by local government thinktank Localis on health integration.

‘There appears to be a sort of market failure at the moment,’ Mr Lamb said.

‘[There are] very few players in the market for developing specialised housing for older people… and yet there is an enormous burgeoning in demand.

‘I can’t understand why there is this market failure. We have an impact fund to try and prime the market to get specialised housing going but there is that discussion happening now in government thankfully.’

Mr Lamb revealed that the Department of Health and the Communities and Local Government department held a roundtable in July to try and kick-start the elderly housing market.

He said in his speech that the country’s rapidly ageing population meant councils and the NHS should innovate in order to meet heightened demand for care.

Mr Lamb described integrated care as ‘the only game in town’.

The Localis report, funded by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, said 76% of local authorities which responded to the survey expected to see increased collaboration with housing services.

But it argued that this would be ‘easier said than done’ because such a large proportion of the country’s housing stock is privately rented or owned by housing associations.