McCarthy & Stone
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Housebuilding |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | Bournemouth, England, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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John White (Chairman) Clive Fenton (CEO) |
| Revenue | £485.7 million (2015)[1] |
| £95.3 million (2015)[1] | |
| £64.3 million (2015)[1] | |
|
Number of employees
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circa 900 |
| Website | www |
McCarthy & Stone is a leading retirement housebuilder, based in the UK. The company operates from nine regional offices, and is responsible for constructing two thirds of Britain’s retirement housing stock each year.[2] Since 1977, it has been responsible for selling 50,000 properties across the UK.
Contents
History
John McCarthy and Bill Stone entered into partnership in 1961 and in 1977 they built their first retirement housing development in Hampshire. McCarthy & Stone stopped all its other building work to concentrate on developing specialist housing for older people.[3] By 1982, when the Company was floated on the Unlisted Securities Market, McCarthy & Stone had completed 15 retirement housing developments and was selling around 200 units a year.[4]
Growth was rapid after the flotation and by 1984 the company had a national organisation in place with annual sales approaching 1,000 units. The business was exceptionally profitable due to a rapidly ageing population.[3] Annual sales reached 2,601 in 1988.[3]
McCarthy & Stone was delisted from the London Stock Exchange in December 2006 following a successful takeover bid of over £1 billion from a consortium including David and Simon Reuben and Sir Tom Hunter.[5] The company successfully refinanced in August 2013 under new ownership.[6]
Operations
Retirement Living Apartments
Each Retirement Living development incorporates features specifically for the older homeowner, to make life easier in retirement. A typical development consists of circa 40 one and two bed apartments, a House Manager plus shared facilities such as a homeowners’ lounge, guest suite and laundry. Homeowners have to be 60 or over to live in most developments.
Assisted Living Apartments
Assisted Living apartments bridge the gap between a conventional retirement development and a Care Home. Assisted Living can help postpone the need to consider residential care and the person continues to own their own home. Developments include individual apartments, a restaurant, function room, homeowners’ lounge and other shared facilities. Flexible care and support packages are available as required. Homeowners have to be 70 or over to live in most developments.
Ortus Homes
Ortus Homes is a new product from the McCarthy & Stone Group which offers accommodation for those who are 55 or over. Different from the core Retirement Living product an Ortus Home development has fewer units, larger apartments and more car parking facilities.[7]
Affordable housing
McCarthy & Stone also provides limited affordable housing separate from the main dwelling complex.[8]
Management Services
In 2010, McCarthy & Stone took its management services in-house, ending its long relationship with the management company Peverel. McCarthy & Stone Management Services provides services and support in its Retirement Living schemes, while the company has entered into a partnership with Somerset Care, one of the largest not-for-profit care companies in the UK, to provide management, support and care in its Assisted Living schemes. This partnership is known as YourLife Management Services.[9]
Retirement Market
McCarthy & Stone is the founding member of the Campaign for Housing in Later Life. The campaign aims to tackle the issues surrounding the growing housing needs for the elderly in the UK.[10] In 2014, it was announced that there were only around circa 105,000 retirement homes available to purchase in the UK, but the number of people aged 65 and over is set to grow from 10 million in 2008 to nearly 17 million in 2033.[11]
Analysis by Demos, commissioned by the campaign, which was set up under the auspices of the Home Builders Federation in 2013, found that older people hold £1.28 trillion in housing equity. £400 billion of this amount is currently tied up in homes of the over-60s who want to downsize. The report also suggested that one in four over 60s (3.5 million) are interested in buying a retirement property.[11]
Specific changes to central and local government are being lobbied for, including a strengthening of the National Planning Policy Framework, ensuring that local authorities fulfil their statutory duty to undertake Strategic Housing Market Assessments which gives due consideration to the needs of older people, and reform of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).[10]
Offices
The Company’s head office is in Bournemouth. In addition, regional offices are located in Glasgow, Altrincham, York, Coventry, St Albans, Woking, Ringwood, Taunton and Bournemouth.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ How to retire back in Britain – 31/05/2009 – Daily Telegraph
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5
- ↑ Company Prospectus (1982)
- ↑ HBOS-led 'Mother Bidco' scoops McCarthy & Stone – 06/09/2006 – Contract Journal
- ↑ New McCarthy & Stone boss wields the axe Construction Index, 6 March 2014
- ↑ About us
- ↑ McCarthy & Stone Celebrates its 1,000th Success with Special Guests
- ↑ McCarthy & Stone to Sell Financial Services, Sunday Times Says
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Campaign for Housing in Later Life: Tackling an age-old problem
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People. Living Well at Home Inquiry, 2011. Demos, Top of the Ladder, September 2013.
External links
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