Developing age-friendly work in the twenty-first century: New challenges and agendas

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review factors influencing the development of age-friendly communities, pressures arising from context of economic austerity, and issues which need to be considered for further work. Design/methodology/approach - A synthesis of academic literature covering both age-friendly research and other relevant studies. Findings - Pressures on the age-friendly movement include: cuts to the budgets of local authorities; impact of urban regeneration; and high levels of deprivation in inner city communities. Responses need to consider: closer links with other urban programmes (e.g. healthy cities); prioritising the challenge of social inequality; exerting great control over urban development and regeneration; and devising new approaches to delivering age-friendly interventions at a neighbourhood level. Originality/value - Although the age-friendly movement has many achievements to its name, economic pressures are raising question marks about its future progress. The paper identifies several options for future development. Central to these must be linking age-friendly debates to the inequalities and injustices which affect city life.