Building a better future for our ageing population

John McDonald, group director of corporate development at Graham Construction, discusses the role of the built environment in delivering sustainable solutions capable of tackling the pressures facing our health and social care system

Improvements in standards of living and healthcare provision mean we’re living longer. As a whole, the population is also getting older, a fact supported by the latest research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

In the Overview of the UK Population: November 2017report, the ONS revealed that 18.2 per cent of the population was aged 65 or over – an increase from 15.9 per cent in 2007.1 This figure is predicted to rise by more than one fifth to 20.7 per cent of the population over the next 10 years. 

Alarmingly, The Lancet Public Health Medical Journal’s 2017 modelling study ‘Forecasted Trends in Disability and Life Expectancy in England and Wales up to 2025’,2revealed that the number of older people with care needs will increase by 25 per cent by 2025. 

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