A seemingly small dispute at one sheltered housing scheme, where residents have been told a broken stairlift will not be replaced, points to a far larger structural problem facing Britain's supported and retirement housing sector: chronic underinvestment in the maintenance of stock built decades ago for an ageing population that has since grown substantially larger and frailer. For a resident who cannot climb stairs without assistance, the loss of a stairlift is not a cosmetic inconvenience but a direct threat to independent living, and potentially the trigger for a costly, unwanted move into residential care.