Lifetime Homes

What exactly is a "lifetime home"?

One which incorporates 16 key features designed to make it easier for people with impaired mobility. For example, doors must be wide enough for wheelchairs. There must be an easy route to take a hoist from bedroom to bathroom. There must be a space on the staircase to install a stairlift, and even a wheelchair lifting platform, should the need arise. Sockets must be at a high level so that occupants will not have to bend down to plug in the television, and parking spaces must be at least 3.3 metres wide to allow wheelchair-users to get out of cars. Homes with three or more bedrooms must have room for a downstairs shower - building regulations already demand that all houses have downstairs toilets.

Is this really necessary?

The Government estimates that by 2026, half the growth of new households will be made up of the over-65s. It adds that there are already 1.4 million people who require specially adapted housing, and it is already spending £126 million a year on grants to adapt properties for their needs - and keep people out of expensive care homes. By insisting that every new home is designed for people with mobility problems, it hopes to contain growth in these costs. That said, it isn't as if the elderly are not already coping with the existing housing stock: three-quarters of the over- 90s live in private housing. And in any case, many stairlifts never get used: one installer, Mendip Care and Repair, admits that most are hardly used: they are torn out and scrapped because the would-be user dies or moves into a home.

Is it going to be compulsory?

Not at first. The Government hopes that developers will adopt its design code. But if they haven't shown signs of doing so by 2010, it says legislation will follow by 2013.

Isn't it going to cost a fortune to design lifetime homes?

Not according to the Government: it estimates the extra costs at a remarkably precise £547 per home. That, says David Mitchell, technical director of the Home Builders' Federation, is likely to turn out somewhat "on the light side".

"It will require some designs to be built on a large footprint with a considerable increase in costs. We will be able to build fewer houses for the same money, at a time when we have a chronic shortage of supply of new homes. And lifetime homes won't be suitable for all kinds of disability in any case. Not everyone can reach out and operate a light switch, even if it is at waist height." Retirement home providers are not impressed, either. As Pegasus Homes point out, the physical fabric of a building is only one aspect: equally important for the elderly and disabled is someone to keep an eye on them. Lifetime homes standards will not go so far as to insist that every housing estate has one of them.

Is it going to mean the end of funky design, such as glass spiral staircases?

There is nothing to say you can't have a spiral staircase - although you would need a second staircase capable of incorporating a stairlift. The rules won't affect large luxury houses and apartments much because they have plenty of room to incorporate the extra features. Far more affected will be two-bedroom houses - typical starter homes.

How does this all fit in with existing government policies?

Badly. Rules on housing density introduced by John Prescott a decade ago have all but put an end to the building of bungalows, which are far more suited to people with mobility problems than are houses with stairlifts. In their place, developers have had to build narrow, three-storey houses with one or fewer parking spaces, making life very difficult for those who need cars. Not only that, many inner-city apartment developments, which have been encouraged by the Government, have been designed unashamedly for young, single people who like to spend their leisure time in bars, with no amenities for children or old people.

What's the point of a wheelchair-friendly home if it is in a neighbourhood hostile to older people?

Not a lot. According to Help the Aged, there are 300,000 elderly people who regularly go a month without speaking to a family member or neighbour. But the Government says its ambitions for lifetime housing do not end at the front door. It has also introduced the concept - no-joke - of "dementia-friendly neighbourhoods" to help the forgetful find their way about. Planners will be expected to include more landmarks in new housing estates to help homeowners work out which standardised "noddy box" is their own.