There will be – and there are already – issues with big event fees The conference of the Association Retirement Community Operators in central London last week offered a fascinating alternative vision for the retirement housing sector to the one that we have. The organisation represents providers who build and manage their own sites, as […]
Archives for 2018
McCarthy and Stone and Churchill: are you blackmailing government over the ground rent ban and is your business model broken? Asks BBC R4 MoneyBox
June 25, 2018 By
Brilliant interview with outgoing McCarthy and Stone CEO Clive Fenton ‘Problem’ that retirement housebuilders have not been spoonfed profits, like others through Help To Buy Anyway, aren’t retirement housebuilders insignificant given the numbers of pensioners who are downsizing today, asks BBC? Radio 4’s MoneyBox quizzed retirement housebuilders McCarthy and Stone and Churchill Retirement Living on […]
Clive Fenton to stand down as CEO of McCarthy and Stone after profits slump
June 20, 2018 By
Is the ground rent ban responsible? Sebastian O’Kelly I guess when you stand down as boss of a publicly quoted retirement housing company that has seen profits fall from £110 million to £65-£80 the headline-writing punsters are not going to miss a trick. So, Clive Fenton, 60, McCarthy and Stone’s CEO, is being “pensioned off” […]
Anti-ground rent trade body ARCO snubbed at retirement housing conference … (along with us, less surprisingly)
June 15, 2018 By
The anti-ground rent trade body ARCO has been snubbed and left uninvited by retirement housing insiders at a City law firm conference next Wednesday to discuss whether a Retirement Housing Act is needed. The Association of Retirement Community Operators, whose members build and manage their retirement housing and care sites for the long term, has […]
Points to consider when buying a new retirement flat …
June 8, 2018 By
By Michael Epstein There can be no doubt that the new build and post 2010(non Firstport managed) McCarthy & Stone developments offer very good facilities are well managed and can offer residents a good quality of life. Increasingly extra services are being offered designated as “Assisted Living” No one can expect these services to come […]
LKP helps raise £14,682 for park home champion Sonia McColl OBE
June 8, 2018 By
Dear LKP and all the wonderful people who have helped me, Your amazing gestures of kindness have raised £14.682 pounds and I can not adequately say how grateful I am to you all. However, I hope you will all know how much it helps when a vital part of your life is stolen and you […]
Anchor and Hanover in talks to merge
June 8, 2018 By
Two housing associations which also build and sell private leasehold retirement properties are planning to merge. It is claimed that the proposed merger would make both organisations more efficient and allow economies of scale in employing contractors. A leaflet sent to residents of the associations says of the merger: “A new bigger organisation would be […]
Tchenguiz brothers fall out among themselves, says The Times
May 17, 2018 By
The Tchenguiz brothers – who before the crash were among the most powerful corporate players in the UK – are litigating again: this time among themselves, according to today’s Times. The dispute centres on the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands, which at one point claimed to own one per cent of […]
Please exempt retirement housebuilders from ground rent ban, pleads Sir Desmond Swayne
May 17, 2018 By
Senior Tory MP Sir Desmond Swaine has pleaded with the Communities Secretary to consider exempting volume retirement housebuilders from the ban on new ground rents. The MP for New Forest West – coincidentally not far from McCarthy and Stone’s Trump-style HQ in Bournemouth – asked in the Tuesday housing debate: “On new build leaseholds, is […]
Complain to Advertising Standards Authority about misleading ‘home ownership’ when applied to retirement leasehold tenancies
April 19, 2018 By
A veteran leasehold campaigner from Carlex earliest days, Susan Wood, has just repeated a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about leasehold tenancies being described as “home ownership” that she first made in 2012. Her first complaint concerned Churchill Retirement. Now she complains about McCarthy and Stone describing their flats in an advert in Saga […]
Love over 50: something we can agree about with McCarthy and Stone
April 19, 2018 By
Respect where it is due. Well done McCarthy and Stone for promoting love over 50. Here is the link to the full article: Dating for over 50s: how to find love in later life – McCarthy & Stone Love in later life can seem daunting. If you’ve been married for some years and are recently […]
Dear Mr Fenton: I don’t regret my purchase at Rosewood Court, but ‘leasehold is a rip-off’
April 18, 2018 By
All re-sales at Rosewood Court should falls in value from new, with several down £50-£60,000. The highest fall is flat 21 showing a fall from February 2004 to May 2017 of £81,500 Clive Fenton, CEO, McCarthy & Stone Dear Mr Fenton, My late wife and I purchased a McCarthy & Stone retirement flat at Rosewood […]
