Policymakers urged to focus on older people
Policymakers have been advised to consider the housing needs of Britain's elderly population more in their future planning.
The call has come from charity Help the Aged, which said there needed to be more choice of accommodation to meet the "varying needs" of the growing pensioner population.
A spokesperson said: "A recognition that the needs of older people must lie at the heart of future housing planning is urgently needed to meet the housing challenge we face."
New initiatives currently emerging include American-style retirement villages, the Daily Telegraph reported recently.
The paper reported that the largest of these, Middleton Towers near Morecambe, is planned to eventually grow to 570 homes.
Pensioners now outnumber dependent-age children in Britain, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.
The ONS has predicted that by 2016 the number of women aged over 60 and men aged over 65 will outnumber the total of under-16s by 400,000.
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