Joseph Rowntree Foundation

An introduction to Lifetime Homes

In the 1980s, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation became particularly concerned about the quality of British housing and in particular how inaccessible and inconvenient many houses were for large segments of the population - from those with young children through to frail older people and those with temporary or permanent disabilities.

In 1991 the Lifetime Homes concept was developed by a group of housing experts who came together as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Lifetime Homes Group. Lifetime Homes have sixteen design features that ensure a new house or flat will meet the needs of most households. This does not mean that every family is surrounded by things that they do not need. The accent is on accessibility and design features that make the home flexible enough to meet whatever comes along in life: a teenager with a broken leg, a family member with serious illness, or parents carrying in heavy shopping and dealing with a pushchair.

In the mid 1990s the Government indicated its wish to extend Part M of the building regulations, which deals with accessibility, to cover houses as well as public buildings. After a long period of consultation in which the Foundation was very actively involved, new regulations come into force for all housing built after October 1999. The new Part M regulations cover accessibility and Lifetime Homes features add to this the built-in flexibility that make homes easy to adapt as peoples' lives change. An earlier research report suggested that not only will the occupiers of homes benefit from Lifetime Homes, but so too will tax payers - to the tune of £5.5 billion over sixty years. These savings come from reduced expenditure on adaptations and reduced need to move people to residential care. There would be further savings in health care and re-housing costs. Organisations building homes subsidised with Government money from the Housing Corporation have to meet scheme development standards that cover similar areas to Lifetime Homes.

When designing new homes, it is now therefore often necessary to take account of three sets of requirements:

  • The first is Part M of the Building Regulations that has recently been extended to include all new homes.
  • The second is the Housing Corporation’s Scheme Development Standards, which all housing funded with Housing Corporation money must meet.
  • The third is Lifetime Homes standards, which many commissioning clients and local authorities now require.

The design solutions for all three sets of requirements are broadly similar. The Lifetime Homes standards and the Scheme Development Standards go a little further than Building Regulations in their requirements for adaptability and flexibility to be designed into the home. As these additions are minor, it seems sensible to design homes which achieve all of these requirements, and are thus ‘universal’ in their appeal and application.

This section of the web site sets out in simple terms what the Building Regulations and Lifetime Homes standards require. The summary tables also indicate which of the Housing Corporation Scheme Development Standards will be met when designing Lifetime Homes. Developers and builders may simply wish to ensure that their plans meet Lifetime Homes standards. If they do, then all of the Part M Building Regulations, and relevant parts of the Housing Corporation Scheme Development Standards will have been met.

But there are other reasons why designing new homes to the Lifetime Homes standards makes sense. Lifetime Homes include a number of attractive features that will differentiate them from the existing housing stock. These will provide the people who live in them with many advantages, and will give private builders of new homes a marketing edge in relation to the second-hand stock with which they compete.

Because Lifetime Homes will be suitable for older people (whose numbers are increasing rapidly) and for the vast majority of disabled people, as well as the non-disabled person, they will have a wider market of potential buyers and residents, probably increasing their value and the ease with which they can be re-sold.

The section on Part M and Lifetime Homes Requirements provides illustrated examples and technical details on meeting Part M regulations and Lifetime Homes standards.

For answers to further questions please visit the Lifetime Homes question pages.

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