More than 1.6 million UK pensioners living in hazardous home conditions

An estimated 14 percent of all households in England – 3.5 million – live in a home that fails to meet the Decent Homes Standard. Of these, 984,000 had a person aged 65 or over as the main resident, meaning upwards of 1.6 million pensioners are currently living in sub-standard conditions. To pass the test, a dwelling must not contain a major hazard, must be in a ‘reasonable state of repair’, have ‘reasonably modern facilities and services’ and provide a ‘reasonable degree of thermal comfort’. For the elderly occupants of the Sythwood block of council flats in Woking, left ‘cold as an iceberg’ without heating for seven weeks , a failure to meet this final condition was the most traumatic this winter. Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better , said it was ‘extremely distressing’ to see that a ‘disproportionately high number of older people live in homes that pose a very real risk to their health and safety.’ Anthony Trimm, 89, said his Woking bathroom was as cold as an “iceberg” (Image: Surrey Live/Darren Pepe) Hazards in the home The Housing Health and Safety Rating System identifies 29 potential hazards, from damp and mould growth, to a lack of security to the presence of asbestos or lead.  Those posing an immediate risk to the occupant’s health or safety are considered Category 1 hazards. In the financial year ending in 2022, 2.3 million households – ten percent of the total – lived in a home with at least one Category 1 hazard. This was the case for 633,000 houses in which a retiree was the primary occupant – meaning at least a million over-65s live in danger of death at any time. Dr Easton added: ‘Not only does inadequate housing damage individuals’ health by exposing them to excess cold or to hazards which cause falls and injuries, it also adds significant pressures on our health and care sector. Poor quality housing costs the NHS £1.4billion a year.’     ‘We believe it is a basic right everyone should live in a home that is safe, warm and comfortable.’ Older people are far more likely to own the home they live in, and so a higher number of owner-occupied dwellings were found to be non-decent than other housing types.   As a percentage, however, older private rented households were far more likely to have a Category 1 hazard present in the home (21 percent) than younger private rentals (14 percent). David Luxton, spokesperson for Later Life Ambitions, a campaign group that represents over 250,000 older people said: ‘This is appalling but sadly hardly surprising news, particularly given the struggles many older people face right now just to put food on the table never mind maintain their accommodation. ‘The cost-of-living crisis is hard for everyone but pensioners are uniquely hard hit because their income is often fixed so the impact of inflation is particularly cruel. ‘For nearly a million pensioners, who have contributed their fair share to the nation, just living in decent accommodation is an ambition that is out of sight, that ought to be a stain on the nation’s conscience and policy makers must address it as a matter or urgency.’ Energy efficiency Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: ‘England has some of the oldest and worst quality homes in Europe and some of these homes can’t be brought up to a decent standard just by patching them up.  ‘For the worst quality homes we need to knock them down and rebuild them as high quality, sustainable new homes.’ One-in-six houses in England were built before 1900. The age of a property has been found to be the biggest single factor in energy efficiency. The EHS found 2.4 million households living in a home with an energy efficiency rating of E or below. Of these, over half (57 percent) – 1.3 million households – failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard. A recent study by home improvement conglomerate Kingfisher found just under two-thirds (62 percent) of over-65s lived in energy inefficient properties , compared to less than half (48 percent) of under 30s. This was partially attributed to the fact that retirees were more likely to live in detached houses, which typically lose more heat through exposed walls than flats or terraced houses. Sythwood council estate in Woking (Image: Surrey Live/Darren Pepe) Ms Henderson added: ‘Funding for this kind of housing regeneration was cut, in its entirety, by the Government in 2010.  ‘After years of campaigning just last month we had the positive news that Homes England, the Government’s housing agency, had changed the rules to allow funding for new affordable homes to be used for regeneration. ‘As we head into the next election, we are calling on all parties to commit to a long-term plan for housing, which includes dedicated funding for regeneration and for building much-needed new social housing.  Dr Easton said: ‘We spend more than half our waking hours in our own home, with older people more likely to spend more time in their own home than the average person.   “The quality of our homes has enormous influence on our physical well-being and our mental health so it is high time we took more seriously the scale of the health risked posed by our country’s poor housing.’   A DLUHC spokesperson said: ‘We have reduced the number of non-decent homes by over 2 million between 2010 and 2020. But we recognise that some families continue to live in poor conditions – that’s why we have set a target to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030. ‘We are updating the Decent Homes Standard to make it fit for this decade and will introduce this into the private rented sector for the first time, rolling out protections to millions more renters across England. “We have also given councils stronger enforcement powers to take action against poor quality housing and have shown that we will not tolerate social housing providers who do not prioritise their tenants.”