Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the energy efficiency of older housing stock in the West Midlands.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future, including those within the West Midlands. The Government will partner with combined authorities and local and devolved governments to roll out this plan.
As the first step towards the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, with £1 billion of this allocated to 2025/2026. Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made an assessment. We believe the duties of such a role are covered by work elsewhere in the system. For instance, the Chief Nurse champions and raises the profile of nursing in social care and works alongside the Chief Social Worker for Adults, to increase the recognition and appreciation of all social workers in the care sector.
Baroness Casey, as part of the independent commission, has been tasked to start a national conversation about what care and support working age adults, older people, and their families should expect from adult social care.
The commission is tasked with producing tangible, pragmatic recommendations that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade. It will aim to make adult social care more productive, preventative, and to give people who draw on care, and their families and carers, more power in the system. Baroness Casey will report on medium-term recommendations in 2026, and longer-term recommendations by 2028.
The 10-Year Health Plan will also set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of health and care needs, including for older people. It will set out how to support and enable health and social care services, and wider services, to work together better to provide that joined-up care.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure the UK’s housing stock of bungalows is adequate to meet the needs of an ageing population.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market.
The updated National Planning Policy Framework asks local planning authorities to assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in their areas, and reflect this in their Local Plan policies. This includes planning for a range of options to meet the differing needs of older people, including bungalows.
As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 26 November 2024 (HCWS249), the government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations from the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report
We will continue to consider this issue as we develop our long-term housing strategy.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure the perspectives of older people are included in her Department's policy decision-making.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We know that work helps everyone, including older people, play active and fulfilling roles in society while building financial security for retirement. That is why we are reforming
employment support to ensure it helps everyone who needs it.
This includes creating a new Jobs and Careers service that will enable everyone, regardless of age, to access support to find good, meaningful work, and help them progress in work or increase their earnings.
We are also committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, including older people, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations.
We have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent “Keep Britain Working” review as a part of the plan to Get Britain Working again. In recognition of employer's vital role, his review is considering recommendations to support and enable employers to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence, and recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions. This includes the perspectives of older people themselves, as well as engaging with the Centre for Ageing Better.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of recommendation 4 of the report by the Older People’s Housing Taskforce entitled Our future homes: Housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population, published on 26 November 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations in the final report of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce and are committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market. We will continue to consider this issue as we develop our long-term housing strategy.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of the introduction of a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing in England.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
DWP offers employment support for eligible older people through the network of Jobcentres across the UK.
The White Paper published on 26 November focuses on support for people who are
economically inactive, people who are looking for work or want to progress, and people who are at risk of economic inactivity despite having a desire to stay in work. This includes and goes beyond people who are claiming benefits. The new national jobs and careers service will be instrumental in achieving this objective. This service will be available for anyone, including older people, who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. The service will be tailored to local needs.
We are committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These we will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion,
challenge, and recommendations. Each group will have a different mix of people including older people.
The department also engages with employers to ensure their recruitment practises attract and support the retention of older people and encouraging employers to sign the Age-Friendly
employer pledge.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to include older women in international development (a) policies and (b) commitments.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is committed to equality and opportunity for all, with a particular focus on those most likely to be marginalised and discriminated against, including on the grounds of their age. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) focuses on those with intersecting forms of disadvantage, like women and girls with disabilities, and we include age as a dimension in our efforts to ensure inclusion and our approach to leaving no one behind.
The FCDO recognises that meaningful engagement on ageing is impossible without good quality data. Our Inclusive Data Action Plan details our approach to ensure that data is disaggregated by age, disability, sex and geography. At a multilateral level, the UK has engaged closely with the work of the UN's Open Ended Working Group on Ageing and has supported UN resolutions on the human rights of older people.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report by the Older People’s Housing Taskforce entitled Our Future Homes: Housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population, published on 26 November 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations in the final report of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce.
We are committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market and we will continue to consider this issue as we develop our long-term housing strategy, which will be published later this year.
I regularly engage with my Ministerial colleagues to ensure that work across government delivers housing designed for specific groups, including older people.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the forthcoming housing strategy will consider (a) the housing needs of older people given the pace of demographic change and (b) the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report entitled Our Future Homes: Housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population, published on 26 November 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 28990 on 18 February 2025.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the next round of the Affordable Housing Programme will include provision for the housing needs of older people given the pace of demographic change; and if she will implement the recommendation to expand provision of the Older People’s Shared Ownership scheme set out within the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report entitled Our Future Homes: Housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population, published on 26 November 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government will set out details of future investment in social and affordable housing at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
The government is committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market and we will continue to consider this issue as we develop our long-term housing strategy.