Bob Bessell, Chairman of the Board, reflects on the last 40 years setting up and managing Retirement Security.

There are now so many contributory elements to the concept of integrated retirement communities / leasehold very sheltered housing, including its name(s), that it is practically impossible to identify all of its origins, but there is certainly a very long list of the people who made significant contributions.

Perhaps the most unexpected is the Pope, whose extended visit to the north of England, about 1974, was a major evangelical success, but financially placed severe stress on the Church’s finances.

To meet the financial strain, the Church found itself having to sell off surplus land, which included what is now Tiddington Court in Stratford-upon Avon.

Many of the other Courts for which Retirement Security is currently responsible had similarly exotic origins, such as Cathedral Green Court in Peterborough, the land for which was a was a free gift, but just as important was the range of people involved. The most significant of whom, without doubt, was Lord Joseph, formerly Sir Keith Joseph, whose father had been Lord Mayor of London and founder of BOVIS, a major development firm who were responsible for about half of the present repertoire of properties in the Retirement Security portfolio.

It was Lord Joseph who arranged for me to meet Lady Thatcher, formerly Mrs Margaret Thatcher, just before she became Prime Minister.

The outcome of that meeting was an invitation by Mrs Thatcher to tell her what was so special about leasehold retirement housing, to which my response was an invitation for her to address the Directors of Social Services; she responded by agreeing, on condition that I provided her with a draft of the speech.

Unfortunately, what could have been an epochmaking event turned out to be a ‘damp squib’ as she preferred to rely on a very mundane contribution provided by a member of her staff. However, even to achieve a contribution by the Leader of the Opposition was a significant advance to the retirement housing debate on which we can continue to build.