The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has published a new housing strategy designed to give older people greater choice in the housing market and to address the challenges for housing an ageing population.

The media coverage has tended to focus on the headlines that new homes must have wide staircases and doors to comply with "Lifetime Homes Standards" (LHS), and the cost implications for developers. The strategy raises the political issue whether, as a society, we are prepared to pay for better designs for our homes to make them "age proof", more "family friendly" or "greener", or whether our primary concern is to tackle affordable housing so that the focus is on building lots of homes cheaply.

Whatever your views, this is a significant document that raises a number of practical points and proposed new initiatives beyond the LHS, of which local authorities and property lawyers need to be aware.