Everyone needs a place to call home

As we continue to campaign to improve housing in later life at Independent Age, Campaigns Officer Josh Murray explores why older people rent.

Many people want to own their home because it brings security, safety and certainty in an uncertain world. However, for a growing number of older people, buying is not an option, and they have to rent.

The number of older renters is increasing in England, with over 400,000 privately rented households containing at least one person aged 65 or over. In Scotland, almost 50,000 older people are private renters. This number will continue to rise in the short and medium term.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to those who have shared their renting story with us so far, your experiences help us campaign to change the systems

With the return of the UK Parliament last week, we want to ensure that housing remains a top priority for the UK Government as the Renters Reform Bill makes its way through Parliament. It’s also important older private renters are on the Scottish Government’s radar with their upcoming Housing Bill expected at some point this year.

Selling up

The reasons for renting in later life range from never having been in a financial position to buy a home, to life events that make renting the only option. These life events can happen to anyone.

We’ve heard from people like Alison, who shared with us:

“I sold my house, paid off my debts and rented, intending to buy a smaller place. But I never managed to get back into the housing market because of recurring family difficulties that affected my health and therefore my ability to work. So that’s what made me become a private tenant.”

A common theme has emerged from the stories we’ve heard, where renting became the only option after changes in their life.

Stephen told us:

“I never intended to rent properties, but because of the changes in my life that I had not foreseen, such as divorce and buying a company off a friend, I rendered myself here.”

Losing your job can impact anyone’s ability to keep a roof over their head. We heard how the impact of losing employment impacted Carol and her husband, resulting in them losing their home:

“My husband was made redundant, I lost my job and we had to sell because otherwise we would have lost the bungalow we had, but at the end of the day we had earned nothing.”

Buying was never an option

Many people living on a low income in later life have experienced financial insecurity in their working life too, so buying was often not an option they could consider.

Madeleine told us that she raised her children alone following the death of their father and that they lived in the home of her mother, who had recently died. After living there for a few years, the house was split among the family. With no opportunity to buy, this meant Madeleine and her children had to continue to rent.

“When my mother died, which was just a few months separate from when my children’s dad died, I was the only one of her children living in that part of the country. I needed to move from my rented house into her house where I lived rent free for a few years. But the house wasn’t left to me, it was left to all of her children to be divided up with a mortgage on it anyway”

What Independent Age is calling for:

There are many reasons why people rent but renting should be a safe and affordable option for everyone, whatever their circumstances. That’s why Independent Age is focused on improving housing to make sure older people living in privately rented accommodation can enjoy a decent, safe and affordable home.

If anything in this blog reflects your own experience, or you have views around housing, we want to know. Email us at campaigns@independentage.org and we’ll be in touch.

We might ask you for a follow-up conversation, or for some more information — but we’ll keep this anonymous unless you give written permission.

PS: If you need any help, we are here for you.
Email helpline@independentage.org or you can head to our website here if you need any support. You can give our Helpline team a call on 0800 319 6789.