A collection of expert essays exploring how the ‘lifetime neighbourhoods agenda’ for housing and the built environment can respond to the economic downturn.

We would like to express our gratitude to ARUP and the the Housing Learning Improvement Network for making this report possible.

The lifetime neighbourhoods agenda has emerged in recent years through growing recognition of the interlocking roles of the built environment, infrastructure, housing, services and space in determining quality of life. Lifetime neighbourhoods are those that “offer the best possible chance of health, wellbeing, and social, economic and civic engagement regardless of age”.

The lifetime neighourhoods agenda went mainstream in 2007 with the publication by the UK Government of ‘Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods – A National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society.’

However, since 2007, changes in the building industry and wider economy have threatened many of the levers and assumptions underpinning the lifetime neighbourhoods agenda. This paper draws on the views of experts in the area to develop a new shared vision about how make the lifetime neighbourhoods vision a reality, and the respective roles of government, public sector agencies, local authorities, private developers, professional organisations, housing associations and the voluntary sector.

Contributors to this report include:

Sarah Davis, Chartered Institute of Housing;
Gary Day, McCarthy & Stone Ltd;
John Low, Joseph Rowntree Foundation;
Thomas Bolton and Rowena Hay, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment;
Gideon Amos OBE, Town and Country Planning Association