An award-winning Jewish campaigner, who has devoted his career to supporting older people, has launched a new parliamentary pledge which aims to combat both elderly isolation and rising rent prices for young people.
Trevor Lyttleton’s pledge would see the government “introduce a targeted tax incentive to enable older homeowners with spare rooms to affordably let to younger renters”.
Trevor told the JC that he believes his proposal “has the potential not only to transform lives but also to save the country millions of pounds”, and he hopes it will get the support of MPs and peers.
“Now there’s a real housing problem for young people, as well as so much loneliness among the elderly. It seems to me a no-brainer.”
According to Age UK, more than 250,000 elderly people in the country regularly go a week without speaking to a friend or family member.
On the other side of the coin, Resolution Foundation reports that 40 per cent of under-30s in the UK are currently paying “unaffordable” rental prices.
Such a scheme could also benefit the NHS as companionship has been shown consistently in medical studies to be immensely beneficial to health in the elderly.
Trevor – who turned 90 last month, and sent the pledge out on his birthday – has spent most of his life campaigning for and working to provide better care and companionship to the elderly.
In 1965, the West London Synagogue member founded the charity Contact the Elderly, which is now called Re-engage. For 50 years, Trevor chaired “one of Britain’s most successful models for intergenerational and multi-ethnic volunteering”, he said.
“I was influenced by an amazing grandma, who was funny and witty. She taught me that old people are fun and have stories to tell.”
The charity was pioneering, being one of the first organisations to recognise the value of intergenerational connection.
Over the course of half a century, it expanded nationwide and supported more than 100,000 vulnerable and isolated elderly people with friendship and excursions.
“We always wanted to get away from the ‘duty to society’ approach,” Trevor said. “We used to say on our adverts: ‘Have fun with the elderly’.”
Since stepping down from the charity in 2015, Trevor has become more concerned about the plight of younger generations as well, and sees the two “major national problems” – elderly loneliness and rising rental prices for young people – as intertwined.
“I spent 50 years helping the elderly, and now that I have grandchildren, I feel like I want to help the young too,” he said.
His idea has prominent backing. Ex-PM David Cameron called the scheme “innovative”, and Matthew Parris, columnist for The Times, wrote recently that “the proposal doesn’t seem to have made it into the chancellor’s budget”, but that “it should [have]”.
Trevor believes far too little concrete legislative action has transpired.
“For example, in 2018, Jeremy Hunt said that elderly neglect is a source of national shame. I was interviewed the next day on ITV and said I was very pleased as it was the first time that a government minister had publicly acknowledged elderly loneliness,” he said.
“But nothing happened on his watch, and the buck was passed down,” he said, describing an all-too-familiar outcome.
Since then, he has repeatedly written letters to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and housing secretary Steve Reed – without a reply. Indeed, he tells me that 10 Downing Street no longer accepts hard copy letters.
“If I was 30 years younger, I would set this up as a charity and run it myself,” Trevor said.
His lifework has been recognised several times, first with an MBE in 2007, then by being named as a “community game changer” by the National Lottery two years ago.
And in the last few weeks, he has been nominated for the “lifetime achiever award” at the National Diversity Awards, for which voting closes on May 20.
Trevor is also a Grammy-nominated composer – “although some people say that I’m decomposing”, he quipped – and he says that our later years can be among the best of our lives.
“I think they are a time for action, for energy, and for enjoyment of quality time with loved ones,” he said. “And also for trying to do something to change the world.”
To read the new parliamentary pledge, click here, to find out more about Re-engage, click here, and to vote for Trevor in the National Diversity Awards, click here.
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