Winchester City Council secures funding for extra care housing scheme

Winchester City Council has secured £1.8m of funding from the Department of Health to provide extra care housing.

The cash, from the Specialised Housing Funding, will boost Hampshire County Council’s commitment to modernise the way it delivers social care to the region's older people in order to better meet their needs.

Hampshire County Council estimates that approximately 10,800 people over the age of 75 currently live in Winchester and the surrounding areas. The local authority predicts this number will rise to 13,900 by 2020, making this funding key to meeting the needs of older people in the future.

Commenting on the funding, Councillor Anna McNair Scott said: “This funding is welcome news. For many people, extra care is the ideal solution as they can have their own home, but with the added reassurance that help is at hand. Extra care also allows people to move out of houses, where they are finding it difficult to cope, into a home where they can be secure and live independently.

“As well as providing a safe environment, extra care housing enables couples with different care needs to stay together. It is also more cost effective than residential care, as people meet their own housing costs or are supported through funding such as housing benefit.”

Work will now begin on building the housing on sites across Winchester in order to meet the Department of Health’s deadline for completion of 31 March 2015.