ABSTRACT
The provision of housing specially for old people created particular financial problems. The desirability of siting housing for the elderly in or near town centres rather than in peripheral housing estates increased costs because central sites were more expensive, although the extra cost was partly offset by special ‘expensive site’ subsidies. Inclusion of special design features, alarm-bell or intercommunication systems, common rooms, laundry facilities, lifts, and provision of special fittings, central heating or cookers all tended to raise costs. There was also the recurrent annual cost of paying a warden, perhaps paying for a gardener or groundsman, and the sporadic cost of paying for interior decoration, where such services were provided. The financial burden of such services was not always known in our case study authorities because large-scale provision of housing specially for the elderly was of recent origin. Old people need many of these facilities and yet, because of low, fixed incomes, they may be unable to pay the higher rents that accompany the provision of convenient, good standard accommodation, except through support from the Ministry of Social Security, which they may not wish to use.
