Social care reform is firmly at the top of the political agenda but without joined-up housing and care planning, we’re at risk of only tackling half the challenge.
To address the ballooning need for social care, local authorities are spending more. According to @The King’s Fund’s Social care 360 2025 Directors of Adult Social Services overspending by £774 million in 2024-25 – the highest overspend in the past decade. Fragmented responsibility for housing, commissioning and care can make it harder to plan provision around local need.
Bringing housing and social care planning together can help address these pressures while delivering better outcomes for local communities and older people. Councils, housing providers and care partners can ensure supply meets local need, including through affordable extra care housing that combines independent living with access to personalised support packages.
A typical 80-apartment affordable extra care housing scheme can save a local authority more than £800,000 a year by helping older people live independently for longer, reducing pressure on hospitals and limiting reliance on unsuitable domiciliary care or premature moves into care homes.
It can also make more housing available for families on social housing waiting lists and bring investment into local communities.
The devolution agenda means regional leaders are likely to have a bigger role to play in the years ahead. And while local government reorganisation has stalled in some areas, there is a strong case for a streamlined but empowered local state to help join up housing and social care planning and improve public services.
Andy Burnham’s willingness to “rip the plaster off” should be applauded – but now we need to be smart about how we design and build a better care system which puts high-quality housing at its heart.