Advisory board is launched to change attitudes towards ageing

A new non-executive advisory board has been launched to change attitudes towards ageing.

The Greater Life Advisory Board has been set up by McCarthy & Stone, one of Britain’s leading builders of retirement apartments.

At the launch, the board made up of six professionals all aged over 50, threw stereotypical signs of ageing such as pipes, slippers, walking sticks and OAP signs into a rubbish bin.

Ali Crossley, executive director of McCarthy & Stone, said: “Our new advisory board will help us tackle the negativity and inertia that commonly surrounds planning for later life.

"We will do this by creating new products and services to meet the needs of the UK’s ageing population, which will see one third of all its households occupied by people aged over 65 within the next 20 years.

“We will also lobby the Government to make changes that will help us to fulfil our ambition to see older people live richer, more rewarding and fulfilling lives.”

The new board members include Edwina Currie who became an MP in 1983, where she spent 14 years and served as minister under Margaret Thatcher in the Department of Health, responsible for public health and women’s health issues.

McCarthy & Stone wants the Greater Life Advisory Board members to re-imagine and re-engineer products, services and perceptions around ageing in a way that will help more people experience a greater life in later life.

The board members, will help to inform new product development as well as support the company’s current lobbying activity in a bid to bring about positive, lasting change.

The six board members are Steven Bedford (chair), Edwina Currie, Sir Henry Every, Ian Gall, Abigail Kirby Harris and Madeline McGill.

Image: Greater Life Advisory Board