Care and assisted living flats planned for former hostel in Slough

A new assisted living and care facility will set up in Slough if the council agree – providing 32 flats for mainly older people.

Millennium House, based at 20-24 Lansdowne Avenue, is currently a hostel containing six bedsit units.

Bharani Care Ltd intends to develop an assisted care facility called Bharani House, demolishing the hostel main building and creating a new four-storey one in its place.

Extra care housing is a type of accommodation with care primarily for older people.

Occupants have specific tenure rights to occupy self-contained homes and agreements that cover care, support, domestic, social, community and other services.

Inside the new facility would be 27 assisted living flats, with a communal dining and recreation room, outdoor amenity space, and soft landscaping including a courtyard.

A second single-storey building currently on the site would be retained and converted into five flats, making 32 in total.

In this kind of set up, residents are not obliged to obtain care services from a specific provider.

Instead, a purpose-built, accessible building will ‘promote independent living’ and support people to age in their own homes, wrote Bharani Care’s representatives, GAA Design.

Occupants have their own front doors, and tenancies which give them security of tenure and the right to control who enters their home.

They will have access to care and support services 24 hours a day. Safety and security are often built into the design, with fob or person-controlled entry.

Bharani Care Ltd ‘has identified a need’ for older people’s accommodation in Slough based on information provided by Slough Borough Council.

“Demand currently exceeds capacity and this is set to continue,” wrote GAA Design.

An additional 987 units for older person’s accommodation is required up to 2036 – including 757 market and 200 affordable homes, they wrote.

In Slough, the number of people aged 65 and is projected to grow by 40 per cent in the next 10 years, GAA Design added.

“We therefore see this …as both addressing the need for additional accommodation with care in the borough, and providing flexible accommodation,” they wrote.

It ‘will enable the council to reduce expenditure’ on long-term and out of area residential care, ‘preventing unplanned hospital admissions’ and ‘supporting timely discharge,’ they claimed.

The scheme will also ‘increase tenure and care support choices for people.’

As local authorities will be placing residents in Bharani House, this plan is predicated on ‘the most conservative’ financial position – that of local authority-nominated tenants occupying all units.

This involves assuming rent and service charges will be funded by Housing Benefit.

However, as Bharani Care believes supported living component ‘will be attractive to a range of clients.’

“Such futureproofing will… make the accommodation attractive to private fee-payers who could take occupation in the unlikely event that the local authority does not nominate to all the units,” wrote GAA Design.

Design features include short-stay cycle parking for visitors and car parking on the site. Space would also be provided in a dedicated off-road bay.

“The proposed development would bring many benefits [including] greatly improving the site’s appearance, claimed GAA Design.

See all documents by entering reference number P/00923/004 into Slough’s planning portal.