Introduction

In this chapter, we consider three environments that cross the age-related–mainstream housing divide, exploring ways in which structured technological and social interventions might enhance the domestic life of older people. We draw on recent empirical work, conducted separately by the authors, at locations in Scotland and in London. Brian McGrail examines the development of adapted high-rise housing in Edinburgh and Glasgow; John Percival looks at traditional sheltered housing in an inner London borough; and Kate Foster considers shared housing for people with dementia in Scotland. Further discussion of the issues raised by the individual studies, along with more detail on the settings themselves and illustrations from interviews, are available. Here the three studies have been merged to offer insights into variation.

The three types of housing provision discussed in this chapter represent different stages in the evolution of policy on housing the general population and those defined as ‘vulnerable’. High-rise housing (defined variously as over four or five storeys) had been a planning solution to urban density for some time in parts of Europe and in Scotland before most English high-rise schemes were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. As a consequence proportionately more older people live in high-rise housing in Scotland than in England, and Scotland has the stronger tradition of flat dwelling on the whole. The schemes investigated by Brian McGrail in this chapter are ‘tower blocks’ with many more than four or five storeys, and date from the 1960s.

In contrast, most sheltered housing schemes date from the late 1970s and 1980s, as public subsidies for housing were largely diverted from general social housing to ‘special needs’ and other specific purposes. Initially, sheltered schemes were provided by local authorities, but by the 1980s most were being developed by housing associations and trusts, with a smaller number being developed for sale. By 1997 there were 451,114 units of sheltered housing in the UK (DETR, unpublished data). In the early 1990s it became evident that the balance of provision was not entirely compatible with demand (McCafferty, 1994) and since then there has been more concentration on sheltered housing with extra care and the diversification of particular schemes in some areas.

Until the development of extra-care sheltered housing, and arguably since then, the situation of people as they cope with increasing frailty in sheltered housing has been precarious.