Understanding ARCO's role in the UK retirement living sector

If you've been following along with our posts, or the later living sector generally, you may have heard of ARCO. At Trowers, we're proud to be a strategic partner of ARCO, and work closely with them. In today's instalment we will break down for you who they are, what they do, and why they are so important.

ARCO stands for Associated Retirement Community Operators. It is the trade association representing the UK IRC sector (for what an IRC is, see day 1 of our series), a term which it coined following substantial research and a drive to have a single term that the sector could unite over. ARCO's goals are to:

• Promote confidence in the sector, ensuring that all members are providing a high quality service to their residents. They achieve this through ARCO’s Standards and Compliance Framework (more on this below).
• Raise awareness of the Integrated Retirement Community model amongst older people and stakeholders alike – ensuring that all older people are aware of the variety of housing options available to them; and that policy makers fully understand the ways in which this type of housing provision can meet the lifestyle, health and social care needs of our ageing population.
• Increase the volume and quality of expertise within the sector and share this with Members, continually investing in research to better understand and promote the socio-economic value of the Integrated Retirement Community model.

As you'll see if you follow this series through, the later living sector in the UK is lacking in sector-specific regulation. One of the great ways that ARCO has sought to instil confidence in both consumers and investors is by a process of self-regulation, requiring members to abide by both a consumer code and a standards and compliance framework. ARCO regularly assesses members to ensure that the high standards are maintained. In a landmark move, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) formally gave stage 1 approval to the ARCO Consumer Code earlier this year. They are now working towards stage 2 approval, which will allow ARCO members to use the CTSI kitemark. For customers trying to navigate the myriad options for retirement housing, having a recognised kitemark to look out for should give them comfort and clarity, in turn streamlining the sales process, and increasing investor confidence in the sector.

Many local planning authorities do not have experience of IRCs. ARCO and its members have therefore developed a model Section 106 agreement to present a consensus view to local planning authorities on the key operational terms and definitions that are used in planning agreements for IRCs - specifically those relating to use, occupancy and the provision of care services. The Model S106 provides certainty to local planning authorities that schemes will operate as genuine IRCs and ensures that there is a mechanism for enforcement of key aspects of those schemes in perpetuity.

It was ARCO who led the call for an Older People's Housing Taskforce, leading ultimately to the publication of the Taskforce's report on 26 November, with recommendations that we explore further elsewhere in this series.

One such recommendation is an exploration of tenure options in the sector. We'll be talking more about this later in the series, but we should mention that ARCO has placed a particular focus on trying to find ways to open up the sector by looking at alternative tenures. The UK seniors market is beholden to the legal framework in the UK, which fails to properly recognise a product which is as much a personal lifestyle choice as it is a housing solution, and where picking up a long lease designed to suit the first resident of a unit doesn't necessarily work well for future residents or for the innovation of operators. 

Trowers worked closely with ARCO to come up with the "Leasehold Plus" model (https://www.arcouk.org/resource/leasehold-plus-the-next-step-for-home-ownership-in-ircs) with the aim of providing greater levels of consumer protection and choice, and greater certainty for operators and investors. As the current government continues to indicate a move away from Leasehold, we are working with ARCO, comparing jurisdictions with much more mature seniors housing markets, to investigate further alternatives and how the UK sector might position itself in relation to the commonhold framework proposed by the government as the new de facto tenure for flats.

At Trowers we support ARCO's campaigns published in their manifestos for an IRC in every town and in every London Borough. Whilst IRCs are not for every older person, if the UK were to have similar market penetration levels to jurisdictions such as New Zealand and the USA, we could support much higher levels of development.

There's so much more that ARCO does beyond this, including:

• Raising the sector up the policy agenda.
• Commissioning research.
• Providing knowledge, events and support to members, including the sector-leading annual ARCO Conference.
• Providing a resource for customers to help them consider whether an IRC is right for them.

To find out more, please visit ARCO's website: https://www.arcouk.org/