THE Vale of Glamorgan council has been called on to build more user-friendly adapted homes by Plaid Cymru Councillor Ian Johnson.

The call comes after a report showed that nearly 300 individuals or families are on the Vale’s Adapted Homes Register, with two thirds of them older than 55.

Barry town centre Councillor Johnson said that he was regularly approached by older residents looking for properties that better suited their needs because they faced difficulty in conducting some everyday tasks but wanted to stay in a house rather than move to a care home.

Councillor Johnson said that funding from the Intermediate Care Fund, a Plaid Cymru initiative in the National Assembly, was helping this year, but the need for adapted homes is much greater than what is currently catered for, and is growing with an ageing population.

Councillor Johnson added that additional funding from the Housing Revenue Account should be used for making houses user-friendly, and that extra housing investment funding available to the council should be invested in adapted homes and smaller homes.

Plaid Cymru Councillor Ian Johnson said: "Ensuring that adults can stay in their homes makes sense because it maintains their independence and costs less to make adaptations than to move people into a care home before they need to be there.

“Recognising this need, Plaid Cymru persuaded the Welsh Government to set up an Intermediate Care Fund, which the Vale of Glamorgan are using to make housing adaptations and allow more older people to stay in their homes.

“But it is much easier if we were building adapted housing from scratch, rather than try to refit existing houses.

“The Housing Revenue Account, which is worth an extra £2.25m to the Vale Council every year, should be used to increase the number of user-friendly, adapted houses in the Vale, and the extra housing investment funding available should also be used for adapted housing and smaller houses - meeting the need that exists in Barry and the wider Vale.”