The inaugural meeting, which takes place on August 26, will see a mixture of operators, investors. developers, civil servants, planners, lawyers and architects come together to understand how best to promote the housing with care sector in Scotland.

The taskforce seeks to build on the work done in England by ARCO, where MPs from four parties used the first ever Parliamentary debate on housing-with-care in July to urge the UK Government to move ahead with ARCO’s proposal for a cross-department housing-with-care taskforce – leading to the government confirming that this task force is now under consideration. The ultimate aim of the group is to encourage a similar debate in Holyrood.

According to Housing LIN, there is enough housing with care in Scotland to cater for roughly 1% of over 75s vs New Zealand, where there is enough to cater for 14%. Sovereign Property Partnership’s research found that demand for housing with care far outweighs supply in Scotland. It believes that it is vital that this form of housing is considered as part of the housing mix to allow older, vulnerable adults to maintain a good quality of life for longer.

Andrew Fyfe from Sovereign Property Partnership said: “It is fantastic to see so many businesses keen to engage in this debate. Our population is ageing quickly and there is a massive gap between what people want and what there is available in terms of housing. This gap in the social care landscape needs to be addressed sooner than later or the problem is going to get worse.

“We will continue to see people living in homes that are no longer suitable for them, with nowhere else to go. The National Care Service report, published on the 9th of August, makes no reference to housing with care even though it has a vital role to play in ensuring older people are well cared for, whilst freeing up mainstream housing and reducing the burden on the NHS”.

If you are interested in participating in the taskforce or have any questions, please get in touch with Andrew Fyfe directly via e-mail at Andrew@sovprop.co.uk.