Veteran charity founder offers Reeves policy to save millions and help lonely pensioners EXCLUSIVE: Trevor Lyttleton’s charity has given lonely pensioners “something to live for” as he offers the Chancellor a money saving policy to tackle isolation.
By Lotti O’Brien, Sunday Express, Sat, Oct 4, 2025
Trevor Lyttleton MBE is urging the chancellor to tackle pensioner lonliness (Image: Humphrey Nemar/Daily Express)
A veteran charity leader is urging the Government to tackle pensioner loneliness with an “innovative” housing policy. Trevor Lyttleton MBE, founder of the national charity Re-engage, described it as “devastating” that Labour has “kicked social care down the road.”
He said that his proposed social reforms could save Chancellor Rachel Reeves millions of pounds ahead of the November Budget, as she battles to close the gap in public finances.
The 88-year-old is calling for a modest tax incentive for older homeowners to encourage them to rent out spare rooms to younger tenants struggling with soaring rent prices.
Mr Lyttleton believes this would save money in the long term by reducing costly housebuilding projects and cutting public health spending linked to loneliness.
He highlighted the “absurdity” of the situation, noting that the idea — branded “innovative” by David Cameron in 2016 — offers a solution to two major issues “quite literally under the same roof.”
Speaking to the Express, he said: “For decades we’ve debated how to build more homes, reform planning or regulate the private rental sector but none will deliver quickly enough to meet the demand of [housing targets] by the end of the Parliament.
“There’s a simple, humane, option of encouraging elderly home owners to rent spare rooms to younger tenants who desperately need them.”
He added that his policy would help to bridge the “gulf between the generations, which is widening, fueling resentment and insecurity.”
Mr Lyttleton founded Re-engage in 1965, marking 60 years this year of campaigning against elderly isolation. His work earned him the National Lottery Game Changer Award for Communities in 2024 and an MBE in 2007 for services to the charity.
Re-engage has “created over 1 million individual happiness links with 100,000 elderly people” through initiatives such as monthly tea parties hosted by thousands of volunteers to combat loneliness.
“When we started, people had no cross on the calendar except an occasional doctor visit,” the veteran charity founder said, adding that one attendee told him: “At last I have something to live for.”
The 88-year-old said that his proposed social reforms could save Rachel Reeves millions of pounds (Image: Getty)
In 2018, Jeremy Hunt declared elderly isolation a national source of shame.
Mr Lyttleton recalled: “I was absolutely thrilled. It was the first time that the Government seemed to recognise loneliness.”
But he added that subsequent administrations failed to act: “They just kicked the whole social care thing down the road, and I was hopeful for the Labour government, but they too have done the same, and it’s devastating.”
He stressed that reducing loneliness would ease the burden on the NHS, as “lonely elderly people make far more GP visits,” costing public services billions each year.
A 2023 report, titled ‘Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation’, found that lacking social connection can be as harmful to health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Trevor is calling for a tax incentive for older homeowners to rent out spare rooms to young tenants (Image: Humphrey Nemar/Daily Express)
It also linked loneliness and isolation to a 26% and 29% increased risk of premature death, alongside higher risks of heart disease (29%) and stroke (32%).
The problem remains widespread. According to Age UK, 7% of people aged 65 and over in the UK — around 940,000 — are often lonely, while 270,000 older people in England go a week without speaking to a friend or family member.
Meanwhile, rental costs continue to climb. In the 12 months leading up to November 2024, average private rents in the UK rose by 9.1% to £1,362 a month, with London seeing an even steeper rise of 11.6%.
“I believe a low-cost pilot supported by local authorities and charities such as Reengage could provide affordable rooms, companionship and intergenerational solidarity,” Mr Lyttleton added.
Mr Lyttleton traces his lifelong mission back to his grandmother, Gertrude Lubelski.
When classmates asked if he grew “bored” spending so much time with her, he replied: “She’s not boring at all!”
Another catalyst was a nearby neighbour who, he said, “had no electricity and she was completely cut off, and that really inspired me to go and take advice from a social worker.”
The social worker warned him that “if you start taking them out you must continue,” and gave him the “invaluable advice” to “never let people down, which became my mantra for 55 years.”
“Our spirit soared at the inspirational first tea party when we saw the old guests smiling and… this was a pivotal moment,” he said.