Rochdale Council invest £1m for the elderly

12.00.00am GMT Thu 25th Feb 2010

Rochdale Council are pleased to announce a massive increase in spending for the elderly. The money is part of the Council's proposals for next year's capital budget that will provide a grand total of £1million. This will be part of the plans to develop Extra Care Housing for older people's communities of the borough.

Extra Care Housing offers elderly citizens an alternative to residential homes. The idea behind Extra Care Housing is that it enables older people to own or part own their flats with a buy back arrangement from the housing provider. Most schemes endeavour to accommodate older people with a range of dependency levels ranging from those would traditionally be in a residential home to those who require house support.

Portfolio Holder for Finance, Councillor Greg Couzens, said

"I am delighted to announce this funding for Extra Care Housing. The Council recognises that Rochdale needs to develop the extra care accommodation offer for our senior citizen. This will help us give our older people the option of enabling them to live as independently for as long as possible and the long term care that they deserve.

The £1million allocated will be spent on attracting and encouraging additional monies from the Homes and Community Agency, so that the Council is able to work with partners to start to deliver some high quality schemes."

Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Health and Social Care, Dale Mulgrew added,

"The Council have plans to develop as a priority the existing site at Meadow View for such an extra care housing scheme, so that we can retain this strategically important site for our older people and create a care plus housing offer.

We will also prioritise under our proposals the site at Hare Hill Court in Littleborough, and start to develop thinking that could deliver in the future an Extra Care Village for the Borough of Rochdale."