A longer life looms for pensioners... but will everybody else be counting the cost?

Some, living the high life funded by the kind of lavish pensions we'll never see again, have been accused of breaking the bank for younger generations. Others have been portrayed as a ticking timebomb, who will selfishly drain the welfare state and the NHS of much-needed resources.

Thanks to increased longevity and a decline in the birth rate, this silver-haired army, apparently intent on bringing the country to its knees, is growing. The UK already has more pensioners than children under 16. In 20 years' time, half the population of Europe will be over 50 and in less than a decade, one quarter of the UK's population will be over 60.

With life expectancy increasing at the rate of five hours every day, panic has officially set in.

By 2051, say the experts, 1.7 million people in the UK will suffer from dementia. The cost of caring for them will run into billions. By 2031, the number of cases of coronary heart disease will increase by 44 per cent to 3.19 million. The funding of state pensions will be unsustainable... and so it goes on.

However, it now seems a fight-back has begun. Last week, Professor Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health and Newcastle University, unveiled his Changing Age Charter. It was a low key launch, but nevertheless the message was clear – we all need to rethink our attitude to getting old.

"Too often, public and political debate has focused on population ageing as a negative issue, a 'burden' to be managed," he said. "What we want is to recognise the tremendously positive contributions that an ageing population makes to society, and encourage a profound change in attitudes to ageing, informed by facts and not by outdated misconceptions."

Prof Kirkwood is not alone. At the Oxford Institute of Ageing, academics have been busy trying to separate the facts from the fiction, setting aside the scaremongering in favour of more reasoned debate.

"Mature societies need not be societies of old people burdened by providing health and social care to frail elders," says institute director Sarah Harper. "We are seeing a fundamental shift in the demographic structure of society. It will affect the way we live, the way we work, public services and health care, but it also brings with it opportunities to be embraced."

So is it time to celebrate our ageing population?

An end to age discrimination

For several decades, the UK has relied on young migrant labour to compensate for its ageing population, but with the rest of the world also getting older, there will have to be a major rethink.

Traditionally, a change of career has been the preserve of the young and those who have found themselves facing redundancy in their 50s have had to be content with whatever scraps thrown at them by job centres. However, in many companies, retraining of older workers has already begun and many experts believe the experience and knowledge amassed by older workers will become lucrative currency. Calls for the fixed retirement age to be scrapped are growing and experts from the Equality and Human Rights Commission say that just by extending the retirement age by 18 months Britain's economy could be boosted by 15bn. By allowing older workers to continue in employment it would also offset concerns over increased spending on pensions and people would be able contribute for longer, allowing more of the public purse to be spent on the over-80s.

"The blind eye that is so often turned to the scourge of ageism, in its widespread and corrosive forms, can no longer be accepted," says Prof Kirkwood. "Ageism should be outlawed to the same extent as racism, sexism and religious discrimination."

Medical breakthroughs

The fact that we are living longer than ever – men can now expect to reach 77, while the average woman lives to 81 – is down in large part to major steps forward in medicine and public health.

Centuries of scientific research, ingenuity and perseverance have increased life expectancy and with renewed focus on how to keep the over-50s fit and healthy, a whole raft of potentially important medical breakthroughs are now in the pipeline. The University of Leeds recently launched a new 11m research centre which will look at ways to repair damage caused to bones, teeth, muscles and the heart, through ageing.

"Our work is driven by the concept of making our second 50 years of life as healthy, comfortable and active as the first," says Professor John Fisher, director of the centre which involves 40 university researchers as well as medical professionals from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

"We now have technology available to do astonishing things, such as repairing the body by growing healthy new tissues and a new generation of prosthetic hip and knee joints that last longer will avoid the need for further replacements. Moreover, advances in medical imaging will allow clinicians to clearly see what's going on inside the body and make a better diagnosis leading to more targeted treatment and less invasive surgery."

Business opportunities

The grey market is a potentially lucrative one for entrepreneurs. Britain is one of the largest investors in telemedicine and the whole area is set to grow rapidly in the next few years.

Sensors are already used in some care homes to monitor blood pressure and insulin levels and the hope is that if they can be installed in private homes, it will prevent people from having to be treated in hospitals or move into care homes. Other areas expected to benefit from the ageing population are specialist travel and leisure companies.

According to the Government's Department for Business Innovation and Skills, which recently launched a drive to increase awareness among firms of the opportunities an ageing population brings, older households also spend more of their income on luxury items, recreation and health products.

"The over-50s hold 60 per cent of the UK's savings, represent about 80 per cent of the country's disposable wealth and each year spend some 200m," says OIA's Sarah Harper. "In marketing circles, grey is definitely set to become the new black. About half the over-50s regularly shop on eBay and more shop online than the under-30s. Advertisers are now beginning to recognise the over- 50s as consumers who respond just as well to attractive relevant marketing opportunities as their children and grandchildren."

Cultural shift

Earlier this month, the BBC was accused of not featuring enough older people. The broadcaster brushed off the report by the Anchor Trust, citing appearances from Sir David Attenborough and Sheila Hancock, as evidence of its commitment to more mature viewers, but the calls for a greater spread of age ranges is unlikely to go away.

Unlike 20 or 30 years ago, the over-60s aren't ready to go quietly into retirement and as the influential baby boomers are joined by subsequent vocal generations of the over-50s, it should hopefully spark a shift in how older people are treated and represented, not only on television, but throughout society.

"Our cities will change," says Sarah Harper. "The increasing dominance of the UK high street by retailers targeting the young will be replaced by more age-segregated shopping areas and the dynamics of families are also changing. We have grown up with the idea of generational succession where people grow old and die and pass on assets, power and status to their descendants. However, soon we will have not three, but five generations all alive and active at the same time and this mature society will provide the opportunity for multi-generations to live and work alongside each other, contributing their own experiences and expertise."

The New Age

n Life expectancy in the developed world is going up by five hours a day.

n In 2000, there were 62 million people in Europe over 65. By 2050,

this is expected to hit 103 million.

n Today in the UK, the ratio of workers to pensioners is 5:1. On current trends, this will be 2:1 by 2050.

n By 2036, there will be about three million people in the UK aged over 85 – if 10 per cent of those people require residential care that will cost the nation 6bn.