Few would deny that it’s taken far too long for the world to face up to climate change, but something much more fundamental has been overlooked, not just for decades or even centuries, but for millennia. I’m talking about growing old.

Across the world we have been painfully slow to factor ageing into the way we design and construct the built environment. Even societies that revere older people for their wisdom and care for them in extended families have given little thought to eliminating the physical barriers which limit so many lives. The view that older people, and those living with disabilities, are “better off at home” has become widely entrenched: including in Britain. Ironically, we failed there too; the concept of accessible housing is barely 30 years old, and it’s been a tortuous journey so far.

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