Recommendations for the Knowsley Housing Trust with the National Strategies for Housing of the UK - Term Paper Example

Recommendations for the KHT to align itself with the national strategies for housing of the UK I. Introduction In February 2008, the government of the United Kingdom launched a new strategy for housing known as “Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods: A National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society”. The strategy document identified ageing in the UK society as one of the greatest “housing challenge”. According to the document, older people will be about half or 48 percent of the increase in the total number of households by 2026.1 The document estimated that this would be about 2.4 million more elderly households relative to the 2008 level. Further, according to the document, by 2041 or around 30 years from now, there will a higher proportion of older people, covering the over 85-year-olds. The same document said that the number of disabled people would double in the composition of the households. Unfortunately, the UK government housing strategy document noted, “most homes and communities are not designed to meet people’s changing needs as they grow older”.2 Through its official website, the Knowsley Housing Trust (KHT) describes itself as “a progressive not for profit, independent housing association” that manages “13,000 high quality homes at affordable rents”. KHT is registered by the Tenant Services authority and is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.3 The mission of the KHT has been to provide quality homes and work for the lasting benefit of communities.4 Similarly, the core value of the KHT has been to improve the neighbourhood and estates that it operates.5 KHT is committed to equality of access, including the access of the older people and elderly to our services.6 Our mission and core values require us to recognize that the demographic trend pertaining to the ageing composition of the UK society applies to the KHT customers as well. II. Needs of older people Housing should be designed for all age groups. However, everybody age or grows old and, thus, housing should be designed with this in mind. Based on interviews conducted by government authorities with older people and reported in February 2008, older people expressed the following as their need as well of the other age groups7: Housing must have ample space to accommodate visiting relatives, care-givers, and storage. Housing should be low maintenance and safe for the less able like older people. It must recognize that older people cannot always climb ably and, therefore, must have a water closet and bathroom at the ground level. Customers of housing units must have access to green and private space. Neighbourhoods must be safe especially as older people in fast ageing population may not be able to quickly avoid criminal elements or danger from unsafe materials, streets, or roads. Services support are needed by people for their homes. They need access to reliable repair and adaptation services for their homes. Most important, customers of the housing industry including older people, wanted to be heard with regard to their suggestions on housing and the neighbourhood. In a similar document of the same year and month, Housing Choices and Aspirations of Older People, older people expressed determination to stay where they are.8 The document also said that they want access to services and amenities. Older people categorically expressed a need for a capability to offer a place to stay to relatives who are older than they are.9 III. The National Strategy and Need for KHT to Align Itself with These There are several elements of the UK national strategy for housing.10 One element of the strategy involves quantitatively increasing the supply of housing units. The second element of the UK national housing strategy involves building housing units that last a lifetime. The third element involves building communities the cover changes in one’s lifetime. As pointed out by the strategy document, neighbourhood like homes should also be inclusive: there must be cinemas and shops but there must health care centres as well that are within everybody’s reach, including the elderly. Implementing this particular element of the national housing strategy will make housing, health and care increasingly interdependent, making "housing and ageing a cross-government priority”.11 Finally, the fourth element of the strategy involves making their homes and neighbourhood safe not only for the young but also for the older individuals.12 Implementing and realizing the strategic elements will improve the supply and quality of housing that is “more responsive to the needs of individuals, communities, and the economy”.13 According to the national strategy, there is a need to be more responsive to the needs of older people because not only are they valuable as individuals but also because people aged 60 own about £932 billion in equity in their homes.14 IV. KHT Initiatives and Capabilities KHT prides itself in an excellent track record of devotion to the needs of its clientele. As early as 2005, way ahead of the 2008 UK national strategy for housing, it has declared as its policy to listen attentively to its clientele. We have strongly forcefully declared a policy of treating all types of customers, including the elderly, with courtesy and respect.15 Its older-people-friendly way of treating, clients require all KHT personnel to provide information that is easy to understand.16 All KHT personnel are required to listen attentively to customers for their complaints and suggestions, knowing fully well that older people can have difficulty of speech or expressing themselves well because of ailments associated with ageing. As early as 2005 or 3 years before the national housing strategy that focused on the elderly or ageing population, the KHT has declared as its policy to be accessible to people with disabilities. Disabilities are often associated with the elderly who may be weaker because of a stroke, heart attack, or any ailment associated with ageing. The Customer Charter itself is a product of implementing the KHT policy of deep and full respect for the elderly. The charter itself was constructed based on focus group discussions with customers, tenants federation, area boards, and personnel drawn various components of the KHT organization.17 We have been sensitive to our customers’ suggestions. In gathering suggestions, we have used focus group discussions, face-to-face solicitation of feedbacks, survey techniques, and through the complaint procedure.18 In February 2009, customers said that security around the vacant flats in Tiverton Close, Huyton need to be addressed and we added security to the area.19 Also on customer’s suggestion, KHT provided additional heating. Customer’s suggested that KHT has to improve security to entrances and KHT did so and, hopefully, the gesture adequately reflected our commitment to serve the elderly of the population as well.20 In April 2009, we have put together a pets policy. 21 The pets policy was formulated after listening to customer’s suggestions, particularly those suggestions that we should make a KHT policy for keeping pets.22 Finally, in October 2009, you pointed out to us that there is a long wait on request for transfer. Responding to the complaint, we have computerized the allocation system and prioritized those involving overcrowding. Customers also requested us to develop activities that would involve both adults and children and we accommodated the request.23 Although, KHT has consistently attempted to tap customers’ suggestions on how it can do its job better, it remains possible that it is not doing enough. For instance, given the phenomenon of ageing in the UK population as well as ageing in the KHT communities, it may be important to tap the opinion of older people directly. It may be possible that the focus group discussions, survey, interviews, and the like have only captured the perspective of the younger generation even if the KHT has striven to remove bias and its solicitation of customer’s feedbacks. Like it or not, age may be a factor why the older generation may feel hesitant to express their perspective on how the KHT communities can be more friendlier and more responsive to the needs of the older population. For instance, it does not seem that the four elements of the UK national housing strategy discussed are being embodied enough in the KHT communities. Thus, the objectives of the following recommendations are precisely to address the possible inadequacies and tap more strongly the perspective of older people themselves in improving the responsiveness of the KHT housing community to the needs of the older people and ageing population. V. Recommendations In view of the foregoing, I hereby submit the following recommendations for the Board of Directors of the KHT to consider. Firstly, I hereby recommend that we focus more strongly our interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, and face-to-face inquiries or solicitation of feedbacks among the older population of the KHT. This is a most important element of a strategy that we may adopt towards improving the older-people friendliness of our KHT housing community. As in the national demographics, we expect the percentage of older people in the composition of the KHT community to increase further. That being the case, it is only fair and appropriate for our community building policies reflect better the inputs and perspectives of the older people in a more significant way. Secondly, I recommend that the Board of Directors directly look into the user-friendliness of the KHT community. For instance, we may ask: are we providing enough, adequate, and closer access to health care among older people in our communities? Are the therapy clinics for stroke and heart ailment survivors close enough for older people? Do our older people have close access to clinics specializing on ailments of older people? How can we improve the current state of affairs? Thirdly, I recommend that the Board of Directors directly ask contractors to review their designs and improve them consistent with the UK national housing strategy as well as feedbacks from the older population of the community. Hence, in future biddings for housing construction contracts, bid applicants will have to be asked to defend their housing designs with regard to safety for older people, provisions for wheelchair-bound elements of the population, and green private spaces. Fourthly, I recommend that the Board of Directors form a committee composed primarily of older people to assess the older people-friendliness of the KHT housing community and come up with specific action programs to improve the current design or set-up in the KHT housing community to make it more older people-friendly. Fifthly, I recommend that the Board of Directors form a committee composed primarily of older people that will assess if the distribution of walking and jogging areas in the KHT housing community is accessible enough and appropriate to most if not all of the elderly in the population. Sixthly, I recommend that the Board of Directors communicate to contractors expressing our readiness to accept technical proposals towards redesigning the existing KHT community to become more friendly or appropriate for older people as it remains friendly to people of various age groups. Seventhly, I recommend that the Board of Directors organize a committee that will look into the safety of the KHT community for older people. The committee must be assigned the task of identifying areas or specific designs, structures, and other elements that pose as safety risks for older people. Finally or eighthly, I recommend that the Board of Directors organize a committee that will look in closely to the design of our housing units and find out to what extent our current housing units can be redesigned or improved to make them more safe and appropriate for older people. Related to this, one need may have something to do with providing an additional room or rooms for relatives or caregivers of older people. In closing, may I propose to the Board of Directors that our immediate tasks today are to ensure that the design for new housing units and communities are consistent with the UK national strategy for housing and redesign current ones whenever redesigning them is feasible. Bibliography Department for Communities and Local Government. Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods: A National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society. London: Communities and Local Government Publications, 2008. __________________________________________. Housing Choices and Aspirations of Older People. London: Communities and Local Government Publications, 2008. Knowsley Housing Trust. Customer Charter. Merseyside: KHT, 2005. ____________________. Annual Report and Financial Statements Year Ended 31st March Merseyside: KHT, 2009. ____________________. Customer Involvement. http://www.k-h-t.org/tenant_participation/ (accessed July 30, 2010). ____________________. Our Mission Statement. http://www.k-h-t.org/corporate/ourmission.html (accessed July 30, 2010). Read More