On the fourth day of National Family Week, Relationships Foundation is calling on the Government to do much more to encourage co-location, enabling relatives to live near or with other family members, as part of its response to looking after our ageing population.
Eric Pickles has recently vowed to stop councils using powers designed for commercial planning applications from charging extra levies on granny flats.
But this masks a wider neglect by the Government of the issue of intergenerational living.
In February 2010, both the Centre for Social Justice and the Relationships Foundation called for the planning and tax systems to favour granny flats. The CSJ recommended that Capital Gains Tax should be abolished on Granny Flats.
Relationships Foundation recommended that the housing stock, particularly the social housing stock should include more multi-generational homes and social housing providers should prioritise family co-location. In Singapore married children or elderly parents who apply to live near each other receive increased housing grants and a reduced waiting time for social housing. The rationale for this scheme is that the government saves in welfare costs as family members assist one another.
Some commentators have gone further. In 2010 the eminent lawyer and crossbench peer Baroness Deech suggested that children could be forced to care for their parents and grandparents, citing as precedents the French l’obligation alimentaire, the English Poor Law and the Singapore Maintenance of Parents Act. The result of the latter is that more than 69% of elderly people in Singapore co-reside with their children.
Commenting, Michael Trend, Executive Director of the Relationships Foundation, said:
“Forcing children to care for parents is a step too far for the UK, but the Government could do more to help people who want to care for their relatives at home.”
“Social Care is the Next Big Problem for the UK, and actively incentivising parents, grandparents and children to live near one another, or under one roof, is a key policy in the mix.”
“The Coalition needs to think more creatively about supporting families because where families cannot care, the taxpayer will have to pay.”
Notes to Editors
• Eric Pickles recently vowed to crack down on inappropriate planning charges on granny flats.
• A UNESCO Report on living arrangements of the elderly in South Asia is available here.
• The Centre for Social Justice called for CGT on granny flats to be abolished to encourage more intergenerational living. It notes: “A family who bought a house for £200,000, built a granny flat for £50,000 and sold the property for £400,000 would normally have to pay CGT of about 18 per cent on a share of the profits, or about £10,000. They would be spared this under the CSJ plan. Mr Duncan Smith’s group is also studying plans to exempt granny flats from additional council tax or VAT charges.”
• Baroness Deech’s comments were reported here. The Singapore Maintenance of Parents Act 1995 allows anyone over 60 who cannot maintain themselves to apply for an order against their child to provide for them. The result is that more than 69% of elderly people in Singapore co-reside with their children.
• Research by Lloyds TSB Insurance found that 500,000 homes in Britain are occupied by several generations. It also found that, when questioned, nearly two thirds (62 per cent) of multi-generational dwellers say that they were forced into it by circumstances, but four in five (77 per cent) say that they are happy with the situation and even more (83 per cent) feel it has brought their family closer together.