£4m retirement village plan approved

A £4 million retirement village with a restaurant, hairdressers and gym will be built in Dudley after the Government gave the scheme the green light.

The new facility will replace Wallbrook residential care home in Whitehouse Street, Coseley, and will include 70 apartments.

The Express & Star revealed in May that Dudley Council was applying for £2 million from the Department of Health for the project. It is one of 25 schemes nationwide which will be funded from Whitehall’s £80 million Extra Care housing pot over the next two years.

The other £2 million will be provided by the Housing Corporation. Four more similar developments are also in the pipeline for the borough by 2015.

The first retirement village will be built and managed by Birmingham-based social landlord Midland Heart.

Councillor Peter Miller, cabinet member for adult and community services, said the new facilities would be “first class”. Building is scheduled to start early next year, with the flats expected to be completed by 2010.

“We are delighted - now we just want to get them built and get people into them as soon as possible. The flats will give people their own freedom as they will have their own front door, they will have care there if we need it and they will have company as well. The village will be the sort of place people will want to live, which you can’t always say about care homes.”

More than 2,000 new flats will go up across the country following today’s announcement. The Government has allocated the funding for schemes aimed at enabling the elderly and those with dementia and long-term conditions to live in their own homes.

Health and Care Minister Ivan Lewis revealed the full list of places in line for a share of the money as he and Sir Michael Parkinson presented a cheque for £3.8 million to bosses who will oversee a project in Barnsley.

The Department of Health says it wants to offer people who can no longer live in their own homes more choice about where they move to. Ministers say limiting their options to care homes often leads to problems including couples finding they can no longer live together.

Extra care housing gives tenants a home that they can rent or buy on a leasehold basis where a range of care and support services are provided on site.

Mr Lewis said: “I am delighted to announce these 25 successful extra care housing sites. Extra care housing is about offering people a choice. Too often I hear of cases where a couple who have been together for over 50 years are forced apart because one requires care and has no choice but to enter residential or nursing care leaving their partner at home.

“I want to change that. Extra care housing will give people a choice about how and where they choose to spend their later life.”