About Us
Inspired by Newcastle City Futures and Newcastle’s commitment to becoming an Age Friendly City, this partnership of Newcastle University with local government; Tyneside based businesses and community and third sector organisations set out to challenge current ideas about housing..
Demographic Change
- By 2040, nearly one in four people in the UK (24.2%) will be aged 65 or over
- Nearly one in five people currently in the UK will live to see their 100th birthday. This includes 29% of people born in 2011.
- Older households (65+) contribute about £61 billion a year to the UK of which £37 billion is from employment and £11.4 billion from informal caring. Child care contributes £6.6 billion. Nearly £6 billion comes from volunteering
- Over two thirds (71%) of householders aged 65+ own homes outright without a mortgage Poor housing for older people costs NHS at least £634m every year
Urban Sustainability
- Air pollution costs the UK economy £54 billion and accounts for 680 lives in the north east region
- 1 in 6 UK properties is considered at risk from flooding
- About half of the power generated in the UK comes from low-carbon sources: nuclear, wind, solar and bio-mass
- Nearly 1 in 3 UK households worries about paying for their energy bills more than any other household bill
- We throw away 20% of the food and drink we buy –on average, that’s £700 each year for a family of four
Digital Innovation
- People aged 55–64 years are the fastest growing group of internet joiners with more than half of those having a social media profile.
- We tweet 456,000 times, post 46,740 Instagram photos, Google 3.6 million searches, and publish 600 new page edits on Wikipedia each minute. The Internet also copes with 103,447,520 spam emails every minute.
- It is predicted that as more of us age we will blend personal care with digital innovation such as wearable devices that send blood pressure etc. readings to your doctor.
- Through the Internet of things more discreet sensors can be invisibly working to ensure a person is safe and retains their independence
- Consent remains the key issue. Any assistive technologies should be primarily for the benefit of the person not a service provider or a carer.
