This year Scottish Housing Day takes place on 18 September with a focus on “homes for life”, considering how the housing sector can help people to live well as their needs change, particularly in later life. As we get older, we are more likely to need to make changes to our home environment, use aids, adaptations and technology, access support or consider moving to a more suitable home.

But we don’t often talk about our changing needs or think about the future in a personal capacity before reaching a trigger point. In a professional capacity, I don’t think we are doing enough as a sector to plan ahead.

We know that our population is ageing, with the number of people aged 65 and over predicted to increase by 23 per cent by 2045 and those aged 75 and over increasing by 39 per cent. Very few local authorities have targets for the development of wheelchair-accessible homes despite research suggesting significant unmet needs for accessible homes and adaptations.

At the same time, there is no incentive for private developers to build homes beyond minimum standards if they would be less profitable. Why would they? As such, we have very little provision of the “retirement developments” much more commonly seen in Europe and the USA.

So what should we be doing to support people throughout life and in older age? There are a few approaches that I class as “no-brainers”.

Firstly, we need to demand greater accessibility standards across all tenures. Accessibility benefits everyone, whether it’s families with children trying to manage buggies, people with mobility issues themselves, or ensuring all spaces are easily manageable for visitors or future residents. Accessibility just makes sense.

Secondly, adaptations need to be properly funded. Our government talks about redesigning services to focus on prevention rather than crisis, to deliver better outcomes for individuals and better value for money. I can’t think of a more obvious example of where this is not currently happening and where the solution is so clear.

Social landlords frequently run out of budget for adaptations which leads to rationing of resources or long waits for items which can help to promote independence, avoid accidents and save money for the NHS. This needs to change and perhaps the National Care Service currently being developed can help to foster the right partnerships between housing health and social care.

Looking to other solutions, I recently read an article advocating for tax breaks to support older households to move home if they want to. It argues that providing incentives for older households to downsize will help to free up family-sized homes for younger generations – but would this just fuel an existing generational divide while younger people already struggle to make it onto the housing ladder?

The Housing and Ageing Alliance called on the UK Government to ringfence 10 per cent of Homes England’s grant programme for older people’s housing, should we be asking for the same in Scotland?

What do you think? Are these the right ideas or do we need different solutions? Join the discussion this Scottish Housing Day.

Find details about how you can get involved on the Scottish Housing Day website.

And join us for a special event hosted by the University of Stirling on 18 September – sign up for free here.

• Ashley Campbell CIHCM is policy and practice manager at CIH Scotland and chair of the Scottish Housing Day group.