Healthcare solutions for struggling town centres – viewpoint in Property Week

In this week’s Property Week, John Chapman, Principal, TODD Architects, asks whether senior living schemes can play a key role in reviving high streets.

Repurposing vacant units and elements of underperforming shopping centres to attract ‘the grey pound’ is clearly a valid option. Projects such as The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Waltham Cross, where TODD Architects recently submitted planning to redevelop an underused car park above the centre into apartments, highlights the potential of adding residential – and other – elements to shopping centres to improve their viability by creating a critical mass of people and attractions in one place.

But what is likely to tempt retirees and their collective spending power to move into such developments? Having easy access to healthcare provision could be another positive influencer, says John. Using ailing shopping centres to create a senior living community around which can focus a range of support services, including walk-in urgent care clinics, primary care and GP group practices, is a sensible proposition and should be part of the healthcare rescue plan in the UK.

He points to projects like those in Newham, where s106 funding from the regeneration projects in the Royal Docks has been used to lease units at Royal Wharf to provide a walk-in health centre to meet the demands of the area’s increasing demographic and ageing population.

Read the full article in Property Week here: https://www.propertyweek.com/ask-the-expert/could-senior-living-schemes-play-a-key-role-in-reviving-high-streets/5105851.article