'David Halpern, a senior No.10 aide, said loneliness was a “more powerful predictor” of whether a pensioner would be alive for more than a decade than whether they smoked.

He also suggested that elderly people who did not move to smaller homes were contributing to the shortage of housing in England.

On an official visit to Sweden, the Prime Minister and some of his key advisers discussed radical plans on retirement with their Scandinavian counterparts.'

Read more: UK Elderly Told: Go Back to Work and Downsize