Should older people move house to make way for the young?

Theres also a sad lacking in larger bungalows, of 3 bed size.They dont acknowledge that some families need these as they're still together due to disabilities, or health problems,or need a room for a carer and that not all needing one are over 55's anymore.

Our small market town has several shops with tatty unlived flats above them, but large living space.

Why are they not requisitioned, renovated and used to house singles, couples, small families?

And before anyone says they would be unsuitable for children, I think of a friend of mine. When she was just 18, she and her boyfriend ‘had’ to get married as she was a month off having their first baby, (this was the early 70’s).

I asked her years later why they hadn’t got married months before when she was first expecting.

She said her young boyfriend was determined not to start married life living with parents, rentals were in short supply, but they managed to get a cheap flat above a furniture shop. They both worked hard, went on to have two more children, moved into a little (mortgaged) terraced house and eventually built a bungalow in town.

But they managed in an upstairs flat, with a baby and pram etc, because that was how you did, back then.

It would be great to see these empty properties lived in again.

People in council/HA houses have to pay a bedroom tax for their spare rooms/bedrooms. I’m not sure if this applies to all people receiving housing benefit. I know that a separate reception room downstairs (so for arguments sake - a dining room when there is already a lounge) would also be classed as a spare room/bedroom

One problem, for those in social housing, can be the lack of attractive alternatives compared to where they live.
A village near me has a small group of local authority housing dating from the thirties. They are three bedroomed homes with good gardens, opposite the primary school, and leading to the village green with a children's playground.
The residents are mostly older. They sit outside their houses, talk to each other and to the parents and children at the end of school. Many have an honesty box for produce from their gardens .
A downsize offer would be a small flat, in the centre of town, with no outside space, because that is all that the local authority have to offer.

It sounds lovely

JaneJudge

People in council/HA houses have to pay a bedroom tax for their spare rooms/bedrooms. I’m not sure if this applies to all people receiving housing benefit. I know that a separate reception room downstairs (so for arguments sake - a dining room when there is already a lounge) would also be classed as a spare room/bedroom

People who rent privately or live in owned properties where they need assistance with their mortgage have money deducted from their claims if they have extra rooms than the Govt think they need.
In the past where poor paying tenants have had their rent paid directly to us, they have had teenage children moving in and out after rows but didn't notify the authorities or us. Cue the Benefits clawing back the overpaid rent directly from our bank accounts with very little notice. It was a nightmare trying to keep track!

The UK is moving past "experimental" modular housing and now the numbers are rapidly increasing (about 15% of new builds are at leasg partly modular) . They aren't up there numbers-wise with traditional brick yet but the quality and speed of what is actually being delivered seems to be good. And fast.

Modern "prefabs" (MMCs) are some of the highest-performing homes in Europe and we are finally upping our game with the "10 day house". I suppose this may have had a rocky start but I rgink the trajectory is very good.

The industry has survived the factory closures of the early to mid 2020s and what’s left is apparently stable (according to what I've been reading).
Also we now have backing for building of £39 billion in government money.

I think we will see these new Modern Methods of Construction homes more and more.
They will ultimately save resources and be easy to live in.

A condition of the February 2026, bidding for the new homes Programme is that if developers want some of thae £39 billion, they have to include modular or prefab elements in their plans. This is how they will be able to scale up.

This is from

Government ‘300 k-homes’ Target Accelerating MMC Adoption

Westminster’s target of 370,000 annual completions and 1.5 million new units by 2030 quadruples the output gap that traditional trades can realistically fill[2]. Long-run pipeline visibility is encouraging contractors to scale facilities such as Laing O’Rourke’s 25,000 m² Explore Manufacturing plant, which shifted from bespoke precast to standardized volumetric products. Scotland’s Housing Emergency Action Plan allocates USD 6.1 billion and already shows 90% MMC penetration across funded schemes, offering proof of concept for volume certainty. Wales and Northern Ireland backstop roll-outs with dedicated MMC grant lines, creating a UK-wide policy flywheel. The predictable demand stream lowers investment risk and accelerates lender comfort with factory amortization horizons.

Source: www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/united-kingdom-prefabricated-buildings-market

It also seems that (against what you might think) standardisation of units makes it easier to make changes and tweaks to design so they don't all have to look the same - or be the same configuration. The engineering is fantastic and every screw is traceable so we will know what's in everything and fingers crossed there will be no more Grenfell disasters

It looks good to me.
I'm actually feeling more positive for the future.

I spent an hour yesterday looking at modular homes as on my house-hunting Internet travels I found a decent plot with planning permission.

I would definitely look at this if I was going to build for myself. Some of them are beautiful. Some look like traditional homes. There are lots of ways to make them different. For builders of volume I think it's a no-brainer.

I'm sure there are better examples but thought I'd find a few for you to see.

www.whathouse.com/architecture-and-design/modular-homes-a-world-away-from-prefab/?hl=en-GB

And this - 43 homes in 43 days
www.northstowe.com/43homes43days?hl=en-GB

And this coming to Leeds:
www.archdaily.com/885298/white-arkitekter-and-citu-release-first-images-of-climate-innovation-district-in-leeds?hl=en-GB

Putting up 'modern prefabs' rapidly will help the housing shortage but what happens to all those traditionally built houses on new estates which remain unsold?

What land will these houses be built on? Infill, brownfield, Greenfield or arable farmland?

Finally, there never seem to be plans for the infrastructure to support all these new houses and no road building to avoid small towns and the surrounding expanding villages becoming one large traffic jam.

We cannot just keep throwing up more and more houses without thinking of the consequences.

Allira

^I’m sure things will change in future. I think there are plans to add one’s pension pot in to the final estate.^

There probably are, but why? Surely one's private pension pot dies with you. Pension providers/insurance companies are the ones who gain anyway as many people never receive the full amount plus interest back in annuities.

It doesn’t die with you. If my husband pre deceases me, it passes to me (albeit a reduced rate).

Basgetti

Allira

I’m sure things will change in future. I think there are plans to add one’s pension pot in to the final estate.

There probably are, but why? Surely one's private pension pot dies with you. Pension providers/insurance companies are the ones who gain anyway as many people never receive the full amount plus interest back in annuities.

It doesn’t die with you. If my husband pre deceases me, it passes to me (albeit a reduced rate).

So they could possibly tax the pension pot at 40%, then what happens? The widow/ widower might not be paying tax at 20% even with the receipt of the pension. Does the widowed spouse get an even more reduced rate?

I think this might be another potty idea, an extra tax burden on those who least deserve it but failing to tackle those who do.

Modular houses have been around since time began. My 15th century house is modular build. If you have ever seen the barn raising in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers you will remember how uickly that went up with a pre constructed timber frame.

Back in the 1970s modern timber frame houses were very popular and many traditional builders put up estates of them and we bought one. That came from the factory with everything ready . The builder put it up in days and then put a brick exterior to it.

But the problem is not how houses are built and what method is used to build them, neither does it matter what size it is .

Builders will only build houses they can sell, and if there are fewer people wanting to buy houses they will simply not build any, no matter what size or how uickly they can be built.

Reducing the price will not make any difference. the reason people are not buying houses at the moment is because of the uncertain political and economic situation and builders expect to make a profit on each house. They will not sell houses for less than the cost of building them. Of course there will always a few people able or having to move, biut talk to anyone selling a house and they will tell you that they have few viewers.

We moved last year. It took us 15 months to sell a house in road where they usually went in days, what is more their were 5 houses on the market at the same town. More than had been on the market in the whole of the previous 25 years. The house we have bought had been on the market for nearly 2 years.

if we want more houses then the government must provide the money to build public sector houses and to get the private market moving the government, I don't care what party it is needs to provide us with a stable growing economy where people can risk thinking ahead further than last nights, rant from Trump or Keir Starmers latest little jaunt abroad.

Back in the 1970s modern timber frame houses were very popular and many traditional builders put up estates of them and we bought one. That came from the factory with everything ready . The builder put it up in days and then put a brick exterior to it.

I remember those. A local builder was putting up a small estate of these timber framed houses and we were tempted to buy one but didn't in the end as there were no facilities nearby. That estate somehow got planning permission even though it was in a National Park.

We have a very nice modern family house. I’d happily move to a small bungalow but there are so few around here that the prices are too high.

If you own your own home then it’s your’s to do with as you please. If you were fortunate enough to have been given a council with very cheap rent to bring up your family in then you have been very fortunate. It was never your house, so I feel the government should build more 1 bedroomed places and yes you should have to move to make way for new families. My friend has just gone into a small flat with assisted living, it’s only two floors high and really nice. I think it’s only fair.

M0nica I think you might be interested in the way Sheffield University (or is it the University of Sheffield) is doing research into MMC - they are finding ways of moving the "factory" site onto the build site (looks like it's a big polytunnel) so it does away with the shipping costs of some MMCs.

I think this will help a lot. They can put these in quite small spaces - infill and brown sites.

And most, Allira (such as the Leeds project) are not just marching across the land with no thought for infrastructure.
I think another big project that seems integrated is near Cambridge.

I am not 100% convinced yet but optimistic.

Menopauselbitch

If you own your own home then it’s your’s to do with as you please. If you were fortunate enough to have been given a council with very cheap rent to bring up your family in then you have been very fortunate. It was never your house, so I feel the government should build more 1 bedroomed places and yes you should have to move to make way for new families. My friend has just gone into a small flat with assisted living, it’s only two floors high and really nice. I think it’s only fair.

I don't think one bedroom places are suitable for older people, or not many of them anyway. Most people want to be able to have friends or family to stay, now and then, and couples don't necessarily want to spend every night together. I often move into a spare room when my husband snores, and if someone is ill and infectious it is not a great idea to share a bed with them. Older people may need overnight care, too. Restricting people to one bedroom on the grounds of age seems to me rather unkind.

I think more two bed homes should be built - not in ghettos for old or young, but as places where people can start and end their time on the 'property ladder'. The 5 bed/4 bath ones that are so fashionable are only really ideal for families with children at home, and that stage of life is fairly temporary.

I'm not keen on the way people are stratified by age. I understand some of it - families might want to live near schools, and older people might prefer easy access to medical centres and public transport, but most of need most services for most of our lives, and IMO it's better to live in a mixed environment. In some ways, that might mean older people moving out of family homes, though, despite the fact that they are often too expensive for the young.

We moved in here when I was in my late 30s, with small children. There is hardly anyone nearby as young as that now, partly because of the location meaning that older people just stay put, but also because the location means that houses are expensive compared to others in the town. You can get a modern estate house for less than a decent sized terrace in the town centre, so that's what families do. First time buyers go for the universally popular two up, two down cottages, and move onto the estates when their families arrive. It will be interesting to see who buys the older houses when we oldies die off. An older woman nearby has gone into a care home, and there is a youngish man and young children in her house now. It didn't go up for sale, so I don't know if it's a permanent arrangement- he may be a relative or a short-term renter (I haven't seen a mum on the scene), or it may be that the tide is turning, and the area will become more mixed again. I'd like to think so.

My daughter lives in what was a 2 up/2 down that has been extended. Her neighbours include older people who have been there for decades, youngsters like her buying their first homes, renters of various types and families. It has a great sense of community.

We live in an estate built for the Londoners that came up to East Midlands with their jobs in the 1960s. At first, my neighbours were mostly elderly but they have since passed away.

Their houses were bought by local couple with young families. They are upgraders not first time buyers.

Anyway, the young ones ie fresh graduates cannot even get a job let alone buy a house.

Economic problems of this country are the results of bad decisions made by the government (increase in employers insurance and minimum wage) and previous government.(Boriswave)

One of my daughter’s former colleague has just bought a house and now told she will be made redundant in a few weeks time.

I will not be happy if I were penalised through no fault of my own and made to pay bedroom tax or garden tax.

Part of the problem is the planning process, the developers must wait years for their planning to be approved.

Part of the problem is the planning process, the developers must wait years for their planning to be approved.

I agree, large part of the problem is planning permission.

I do wonder why young families need so many bedrooms?

Norah

^Part of the problem is the planning process, the developers must wait years for their planning to be approved.^

I agree, large part of the problem is planning permission.

I do wonder why young families need so many bedrooms?

Nowadays, some people are working remotely or hybrid usually 2 to 3 days in the office and remaining days at home.

The bedrooms are converted to study/ offices to accommodate one or two people working from home.

And most, Allira (such as the Leeds project) are not just marching across the land with no thought for infrastructure.

I'm pleased to hear that NotSpaghetti

Perhaps it's just here!

The UK builds the smallest houses in Europe. The modern model seems to have very small rooms with the emphasis on the latest trend in kitchens and bathrooms.
Children now expect a room each where mine always shared until they left home. Starter homes have a box room which ends up housing a six foot teenager as the parents can’t afford to move up to something bigger.
These tiny homes are crammed into new estates with an equally tiny garden each, surrounded by tall wooden fences. They have no storage space and the children’s play areas which were on the plans never materialise. This is the 21stC equivalent of the tower block.

I think this isn't quite the situation. It's more nuanced - and the 2026 standards will change things.

I think many houses these days are larger than those built pre and just postwar and certainly larger than the new Wimpey houses which were being built when we were first house hunting in the late 1960s. The ubiquitous semis with a box room as the third bedroom! And one bathroom.

Better to have a small, fenced garden than living in a high rise, but that is just my preference.

I will not be happy if I were penalised through no fault of my own and made to pay bedroom tax or garden tax.
That won't happen if you are a pensioner, or if you own your home, or if you are not on benefits.

It is only working age people claiming benefits and living in rented accommodation who pay bedroom tax. I've never heard of garden tax. The rationale is that the benefit system should not pay for people to have more bedrooms than they need when others don't have enough. There are two very obvious sides to that argument, which IMO are equally valid.