Homes for Later Living has today published its third report. The report focuses on the importance of retirement developments to local growth and high streets

The research was authored by WPI Strategy and Chris Walker, and finds:

1. Retirement properties create more local economic value and more local jobs than any other type of residential development.

2. For just one retirement development, a local authority could expect to see benefits of 85 construction jobs for the duration of the build, as well as six permanent jobs and £13m in Gross Value Added over the lifetime of the development, as opposed to not developing a site.

3. People living in each retirement development generate £550,000 of spending per year, £347,000 of which is spent on the local high street. Some £225,000 of this is new spending in the local authority, directly contributing to keeping local shops open.

4. From these figures, we estimate that a typical retirement housing development has the potential to support more than three local retail jobs.

This follows on from their first two research reports. The first showed the health and wellbeing benefits of retirement housing to our residents. The second showed the benefits of building retirement homes for the market as a whole, as transactions free up homes down the chain.

You can read the full report here.