Sky News reports:
A wave of renters is approaching retirement and "staring down the barrel of homelessness" when their pay cheques cease.
The number of households aged 55-64 who are privately renting in the UK has risen by 81% since 2008, Money team analysis shows.
Retiree Wendy Butler, 70, from Cockermouth, is battling her landlord to stop him swallowing half of her fixed income.
The landlord wants to raise her rent from £625 to £950 a month, a 52% increase that almost eclipses the entire state pension, worth £1,065.
What this highlights is that it is not just the young who need affordable housing, it's also the old.
But the problem is that the UK has no clue about how to build housing suitable for older people and not young families who need a far different configuration of house.
The current solutions are:
- age-restricted apartments (too expensive for many people)
- park/mobile homes (also too expensive for many people)
- vans
- homelessness
The UK culture is not orientated towards children looking after parents by giving them a bedroom in their own home and this is not always possible anyway.
This is another issue that the Mayor of Manchester might take a look at by considering the post-war example of pre-fabs.