One of the most encouraging outcomes from the report from the Older People’s Housing Taskforce is the recognition that older people are not a homogeneous group.

Amy France is a partner and head of later living at Forsters

The report notes that, as with any generation, older people deserve a diverse housing market to meet their varying needs and characteristics.

The government increasingly wants to offer an ‘age in place’ option for people and to ensure that new provision is needs based, so an essential starting point for later-living providers should be to look at the local demographics of their sites. This will help decision-makers and designers to establish whether adaptations to take into account factors such as faith and culture are necessary.

As the UK now looks to implement the taskforce’s vision, we only have a handful of specialist locations and demographically adapted later-living options to reference, such as care homes that cater to the specific needs of ethnic minorities or retirement communities serving the LGBTQ+ community. By looking to serve certain groups of the older population and really understand their particular needs and requirements, these housing options can be transformative for those living in them.

Diversity is also about ensuring that older people remain part of thriving, integrated communities

For example, Tonic, the UK’s first provider of ‘LGBTQ+ affirmative’ retirement housing, celebrates LGBTQ+ identities and puts that community at the heart of its developments. Its Bankhouse community on Albert Embankment in London has 84 affordable apartments – and for older LGBTQ+ residents, the chance to live their lives alongside those from the same community is priceless.

Older LGBTQ+ people who have moved into mainstream retirement communities have reported that sometimes it can be very difficult as they have to ‘come out’ again in later life and sometimes don’t have the same interests and concerns as their heterosexual neighbours. Tonic’s mission is not just to be ‘LGBTQ+ friendly’ but to affirm the lives, histories, needs and desires of its residents.

In a similar vein, in recent years, more care homes have started catering to a specific ethnic community. Karuna Manor in Harrow, north London, focuses on the Gujarati community; it includes a temple and provides Gujarati food for its residents. Aashna House in Streatham Vale, south London, serves residents with an Asian lifestyle from all kinds of faiths. Jewish Care runs a number of care homes that proudly celebrate residents’ Jewish roots.

Diversification trend grows

As the diversification trend grows, we will see more senior living communities tailored according to race, gender, religion, sexuality and more. Care homes and retirement schemes that focus on particular communities provide an excellent template for other similar schemes that are focused on inclusion and combating loneliness, particularly among minority groups.

Diversity, however, isn’t limited to tailoring to faith and other minority groups; it is also about ensuring that older people remain part of thriving, integrated communities.

Bankhouse: the Tonic scheme is tailored to older members of the LGBTQ+ community

Last year, Birchgrove and Hybr joined forces to launch Ayrton House, an intergenerational living scheme for students, key workers and retirees in north London. The goal was for students to share communal facilities with the retirees. The unique tenant mix aimed to provide access to high-quality homes at affordable prices for key workers while offering older people a greater sense of purpose and hopefully a greater life expectancy.

Diversity in the later-living sector is also a way to ensure that a wide pool of talent is attracted to work in the sector. This could create a virtuous circle, as the more that the sector is managed by a diverse group the better the diversity in the provision.

There are two noteworthy industry groups dedicated to making the sector more diverse, inclusive and equitable. PREACH Inclusion (formerly BAME in Property) works across the industry, providing educational campaigns, consultancy, workshops and a variety of corporate memberships. Similarly, Women in Retirement Living aims to empower women and other under-represented groups through networking, knowledge-sharing and mentoring.

Momentum is gathering behind an increasing supply of housing options for older people in later life. It is imperative that, as we step up delivery, we do not repeat the mistakes of the past by building homes that do not fit the needs of our changing demographics.

Amy France is a partner and head of later living at Forsters