By Tim Whitaker

“Building back better” became the official maxim trotted out liberally by politicians and policy makers during the pandemic. The tenets included earnestly reflecting on what happened, learning lessons, and developing solutions to deliver a better more optimistic future. For older age groups, this is obviously appealing. COVID’s detrimental effect wasn’t just the tragic death toll, but how it highlighted structural inequalities, set acute challenges for health and wellbeing, and accelerated the list of wicked problems facing older people, not least social care.

As we exit the pandemic, the jury is out on whether we have a policy consensus on the direction of an ageing society with “recovery planning.” The question is: has COVID strengthened the case for addressing the implications of ageing in a positive way? It is beginning to look like a rather uncertain and complicated future, which may hamper the prospects for a good ageing society. Ageism (and ableism) have been rife during the pandemic; there are many competing priorities for recovery and now more worryingly we see a lack of recognition that older people are a diverse group with varied needs.

Positive Ageing in London, an age advocacy organisation, has been closely scrutinising London’s approach to what is called “recovery planning” by the Greater London Authority and London Boroughs. The tests are whether it’s addressing older Londoner’s needs and helping to plan for an ageing society in London. This is important as London is still waiting to become an age friendly city, having signed up in 2018 but with little concrete progress, despite the customary warm words in Mayoral manifestos.

Our evidence is there is a struggle to get age-related issues as priorities onto the recovery agenda in a systematic way, and this is the experience of some other cities.

Recovery plans did emphasise that all ages had to be catered for with “no one left behind”. Yet many local plans, whilst recognizing the grave impact of COVID on older people, only painted an overly broad picture of older people in general terms, manifested in the beguiling phrase “supporting our older residents.” Vulnerable older people requiring adult social services and health services, and specific problems such as loneliness got recognition. But the lack of segmentation of “older people” and an assumption of the dependency of older people was very noticeable.

The traditional policy perception of “older people” is highlighted in the way recovery planning has treated high street renewal post pandemic. Many London Borough high street recovery plans we examined tended to emphasise the needs of “younger age groups,” not older people, and failed to assess the age implications of proposals, which in many cases adversely affected older people. Almost all the glossy pictures in plans showed young people in cafes, pavement tables or workspaces – older faces were very conspicuous by their absence. And there was a lack of appreciation that older people can play a part in recovery as active agents – as consumers, workers, residents, volunteers and activists In particular, London policy makers are neglecting the power of the “the grey pound” in plans to revitalise high streets; a point so well demonstrated over the years by ILCUK. But this may turn out to be flawed thinking. A Retail Week survey earlier this year demonstrates how older people support their high street – for many it provides the convenience of local shopping plus support for local businesses and for the good of the community. Certainly, older consumers can be big spenders on their high streets. Studies of where retirement housing projects are located in urban centres show they generate a significant economic benefit to local shops on the high street.

So economic recovery on high streets could be fuelled by older consumers. Yet there is an obstacle. Many older people want to go and spend in their high street but feel shut out – finding it difficult or uninviting. The biggest challenges are accessibility issues – uneven pavements, street clutter, scooters on pavements, few places to sit, and a lack of toilets. The street space changes made during the pandemic by local councils created many problems for older and disabled people, showing a complete lack of thought about the implications. All this inhibits what is a much-needed spending potential for high street businesses.

Making high streets accessible and inviting to older people isn’t exactly rocket science. There’s a vast literature on what contributes to an age friendly high street, with numerous good case studies to follow. There are some positive examples in London and many good examples elsewhere, but in the main older consumers haven’t quite penetrated the London high street recovery narrative.

Why is this, given the stark facts of an ageing society and what’s needed in terms of an agenda for action? First, unfortunately, stereotypes linger and unconsciously creep into local planning. Older Londoners are a truly diverse group with truly diverse needs, interests, and activities – above all they contribute through working, volunteering, supporting the community and helping the economy. Changing the narrative away from dependency still appears to be the challenge.

Secondly, the absence of coherent age friendly plans locally is also a constraint. These can provide a co-ordinated approach to identifying and interpreting older people’s needs and developing local solutions. Third is the need for active engagement from older people in recovery planning – their voices and insights are so vital. This shouldn’t be as passive consultees, but as active citizens with a genuine role in contributing to solutions. Their views of shopping and amenities and high streets from a lived experience needs to be more centre stage in the urban re-generation agenda.

We do have an opportunity prompted by the various forces unleashed by the pandemic, to re-think the idea of High Street. This is essential now and crucially needs to have older people at the forefront. In turn, this urgently requires a different debate than currently happens in urban planning regarding age issues.

Tim will be speaking about these issues in a virtual workshops in the build-up to ILC’s Future of Ageing conference, titled: Building back the high street for a changing world, on Tuesday, 30 November 2021. For more information and tickets, visit ILC’s conference page.