A radical social housing strategy from the new economics foundation, an independent think tank, sets out measures that could deliver one million affordable homes in five years despite the Spending Review cuts. The strategy is based on reducing the cost of land and capital.

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Telecare and telehealth are enabling councils to save millions of pounds on care for the elderly while helping them to keep out of hospital and care homes and stay in their own homes. New technologies for supporting elderly people in their own homes have been trialled extensively in the last few years and the trials are showing conclusively that technology works.

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This report commissioned by the Rural Services Network concluded that existing measures are inadequate to the scale of the problem.

The research confirmed expectations that fuel disadvantage is having a deep impact affecting more than 70% of rural households. It also showed that this figure could be deeper still but for the finding that a large percentage of rural households are switching their heating down or off in winter months and going without other things, such as food, to reduce their fuel costs.

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