Care village pioneer calls Bupa's acquisition of Richmond Villages 'major endorsement' of care village concept

The man who pioneered Britain’s growing care village industry has called Bupa’s acquisition of his former company Richmond Care Villages a “major endorsement” of the care village concept.

Keith Cockell, who launched Richmond Care Villages in 1999, described the sale as “a reassuring milestone in accommodation and care for the elderly in the UK”.

Mr Cockell founded Richmond Care Villages after identifying a need to meet people’s aspirations for accommodation in well-designed and landscaped communities with access to arts, sports and leisure facilities, as well as social and nursing care provision on-site.

Mr Cockell said: “I believe Bupa’s acquisition of Richmond Care Villages will certainly prove to be a reassuring milestone in accommodation and care for the elderly in the UK.

“It marks the recognition by a major non-profit-making national institution of the advantages of care villages as places to live, offering people homes in attractive developments where they have access to friends, activities and, most importantly, quality healthcare right the way through until the end of their lives.”

He opened his first care village in his native Coventry in 1991, followed by a further development in Nantwich, Cheshire, in 1996, before launching a joint venture with Barchester Healthcare at Payneswick, Gloucestershire, in 2006.

Mr Cockell then launched English Villages, a company which acquires suitable sites, secures planning permission and designs new care village developments on behalf of landowners in order to establish a pipeline of ready-to-build projects for potential investors.

English Villages is currently developing two new villages, in Bishopstoke and Yateley, both in Hampshire, on behalf of Anchor, which is one of England’s largest not-for-profit housing association and provides housing, care and support to people over 55 years old.

Mr Cockell added: “It is estimated that the UK’s over-65s are sitting on hundreds of billion of pounds worth of equity in their homes. They have money to buy somewhere else to live, but there is a critical nationwide shortage of the enhanced sheltered and assisted living units that most of them would choose.

“At the same time, they have increasingly sophisticated tastes, but recognise that one day they are going to require regular care.

“The care village model offers them a genuinely attractive alternative, and I hope that Bupa’s entry into the sector will encourage other reputable operators to help develop more schemes that will help to offset the growing crisis in suitable accommodation for our ageing population.”