Ms Caroline Timmons:

One of the things to mention in respect of planning and local authorities, and how to help them to plan where to put their older people's housing, is we have made significant progress. One of the working groups from the four working groups under the housing options for ageing population policy looked very specifically at that. At the time, it looked at where that housing should be brought forward. Should it be in urban or rural settings and where is the divide? That led us to a very interesting place to do with geographic information system mapping and what we can use it for. We can take all the information we have, such as where all the services and older people are, and identify the location that would serve the best interests of the older people. We are developing a tool for local authorities to score and rate development potential of particular sites. That will help them to plan for where they should put their older people's housing. That is one of the ways they can bring that forward.

On specific zonings and density, I am not sure density is the issue per se. We could have a conversation about that, but it is about raising the awareness of planners about what makes a good older persons' development, why it is necessary in the area, what could be attractive about that, and what the needs are. The housing and planning departments of each local authority have to communicate on that front. That is maybe moving us back to the housing strategy being the key part of the work that needs to be done so that everybody sees the importance of it in the first place. I am not sure a specific zone is required or that we should necessarily be prescriptive about density. Sometimes apartments can work very well for older people if they are well designed and have good principles behind them. I would not say every development should be the same, but I can see what the Senator is saying about keeping in mind the overarching need for older people's housing.