McCarthy & Stone concludes partnership with Somerset Care

Retirement community developer McCarthy & Stone has achieved a significant milestone in the delivery of its new strategy to transition the business from a simple housebuilder.

M&S told investors on Wednesday that all regulated care, domestic support and property management services provided in its Retirement Living PLUS developments would now be delivered directly by the firm after agreeing to end its partnership with Somerset Care.

The partnership, YourLife Management Services, which has provided these services in all Retirement Living PLUS developments so far will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the FTSE 250-listed group.

Chief executive John Tonkiss said: "Our partnership with Somerset Care has been hugely successful and has made a profound difference to the quality of life of thousands of older people. It has helped us to become one of the largest operators in the housing with care sector and we deliver more new dwellings of this form of housing each year than any other organisation.

"Now our care service is at significant scale and the partnership with Somerset Care has concluded, we have an exciting opportunity to develop the next generation of products and services in line with our new strategy. The growth of our care and service business is integral to this approach and it is essential that these services are delivered wholly by McCarthy & Stone."

As of 0915 BST, McCarthy & Stone shares had picked up 0.57% to 140.20p.