National Home Improvement Council welcomes charity’s report on ‘downsizing’ but says there’s plenty of housing accommodation around

Home downsizing is an excellent suggestion, says the National Home Improvement Council (NHIC), but the Intergenerational Foundation should not worry too much about providing sufficient homes for young people. The Foundation’s recent report encourages the older generation to make room for the younger one in homes which are, perhaps, embarrassingly too big!

Executive director of the NHIC, says: “This latest report is another important emphasis on providing new accommodation for thousands of home seekers in the UK community. The NHIC has said consistently that no one should need to be overly concerned about having a roof over their head!

“There are hundreds of thousands of ‘redundant’ properties around that could easily provide first class living facilities for millions of anxious home seekers. Local council’s and landlords have the power to renovate and improve these properties, both energy efficiently sustainably, to meet the burgeoning demand for homes.”

While the Foundation’s report admirably calls for the elderly to sell-up and downsize to a smaller property, the current constraints on people’s purse strings means that millions can’t afford to buy! It is possible, however, for numerous existing properties with living accommodation to be converted to modern day living standards which easy to run and affordable.

Andrew Leech makes the point: “These days, you can look down most main streets in urban and rural areas and see many ‘closed’ retail or commercial properties that are ripe for change, easily and economically, into fine residential properties for sale or rent! Also, there are many large residential and public houses around that lend themselves readily to change!”

NHIC-PRESS RELEASE 19.10.11 (PDF)