Foreign Secretary and former Housing Minister Dominic Raab has been urged to intervene as Elmbridge council, in his constituency, looks to refuse a planning application for a £100m regeneration scheme providing specialist care for the elderly.
Elmbridge Borough Council’s website states that the scheme would fail to “add to the centre’s competitiveness and would undermine the vitality and viability of town centre.”
The proposed scheme by Guild Living, in partnership with Legal & General, would transform the former Homebase into a new type of retirement village that includes bespoke healthcare and tailored support.
The development will also include transitional care beds – to relieve stress on local services – as well as a range of intergenerational facilities to bring different age groups together.
Whilst planners raised no objections to the design of the proposed development, they have stated that: “the proposed development fails to make efficient use of land by providing the type of elderly accommodation for which there is no short or medium-term need.”
They continued: “The application fails to support diversity in the town centre, it fails to add to the centre’s competitiveness and would undermine the vitality and viability of [the] town centre.”
Dorah May, Chief Officer at Age Concern Epsom, said: “To suggest that more older residents in Walton-on-Thames town centre will do nothing to enhance the area’s ‘vitality’ is misguided, inaccurate and, above all, deeply offensive.
“We urge Elmbridge Borough Council to withdraw such ludicrous comments and see this planning application for what it is — an opportunity to set a benchmark for how Surrey and Britain as a whole should be looking after the elderly.”
According to Guild Living, The Equality Act 2010 prohibits public authorities acting in a discriminatory way, including discrimination on the basis of age. A decision not to grant planning permission because the intended residents will be elderly is a means of treating such people less favourably because of their age, which is a protected characteristic under the Act.
Dan Tench, partner at law firm CMS, said: “It would seem that the refusal to grant planning permission here would be very likely to constitute treating older people less favourably than others. Under the Equality Act 2010, age is a ‘protected characteristic’. Accordingly, it would be unlawful discrimination unless the local authority can show that it was a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.”
Over the next 10 years, the number of people aged over 85 in the UK will double to 3.5 million, with the number of older people living alone having grown by 500,000 since 2008. In Surrey, these trends are even more pronounced, with Elmbridge Council’s own housing statistics showing that while the population of same age cohorts will fall, those in the over-70s category will rise dramatically.
But the statement posted online by the council says: “There is no urgent need for the delivery of any more nursing care bed spaces in Elmbridge for a foreseeable future.”
It adds: “As there is a significant acute pressure to deliver other types of housing and specifically affordable housing coupled with the lack of land available to deliver these homes, a balance must be struck when considering schemes for other uses. As there is no pressing identified need for a C2 extra care or a nursing care accommodation, it is considered that the proposal fails to make efficient use of land in these terms.”
Guild Living claims that this contradicts previous planning applications and appeals in Elmbridge which make clear that there is a local need for senior housing. In 2018, the Planning Inspectorate accepted evidence of a significant shortfall in the supply of specialised accommodation in the borough when determining the planning appeal for Whiteley Village.
The Inspector noted: “There is no doubt in my mind that there is a clear and local need in Elmbridge for all forms of elderly persons’ accommodation, and indeed this need is both urgent and growing.”
Walton-on-Thames resident and Age UK service user, Judith Olisa, 72, said: “The decision by Elmbridge Council to refuse planning permission for a new housing initiative for the elderly because it ‘fails to support diversity in the city centre’ raises awareness of the many forms of discrimination prevalent in society.
“Rhetoric that suggests that age is a barrier to contributing to society, that the financial interest of an area is somehow diminishing by older inhabitants reflects the lack of support by the council to the commitment to diversity and inclusion that the council purports to hold.
“I would be very interested in the evidence that the council can show to substantiate this decision because in my opinion it is straightforward discrimination based on age and little else.”
The proposals will be considered by the planning committee on 20 October.
Phil Bayliss, CEO of Later Living at Legal & General and chairman at Guild Living, said:
“It is a matter of great concern that Elmbridge Borough Council is seemingly unaware of both its duty to protect its growing population of older people, but also of a potential breach of the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits public authorities acting in a discriminatory way, including discrimination on the basis of age.
“Far from depleting ‘vitality’ in the town centre, this project would place older people where they belong — right in the heart of their community — while supporting the local economy and delivering on Elmbridge Council’s obligation to provide adequate housing for older people.
“It is my sincerest hope that the council will have a change of both heart and mind and withdraws its recommendation for refusal.”
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