The Mail’s Jo Thornhill offers insight into equity release plans, highlighting research from a financial planner which suggests housing wealth among the retired stands at more than £1.1trn. She also looks at how older homeowners are increasingly releasing equity in their homes to help give younger family members a leg up onto the property ladder.

… but older owners not to blame for housing woes

At the same time, with an MPs’ inquiry suggesting that older homeowners should be given support to downsize their homes, it is said that it is important not to put too much focus on older people in larger homes when analysing the housing crisis, saying Government policy is to blame and must deliver the solution.

“It’s unfair to imply that elderly people choosing to stay in their homes are even mildly responsible for younger, poorer people struggling to be housed,” the Observer’s journalists comment.