It was interesting to hear from Michael Voges, Chief Executive of ARCO, on their 'Leasehold Plus' proposal at the Care Home and Retirement Living conference yesterday.

Leasehold Plus has been devised in response to feedback from retirement living customers to address what are perceived as flaws with the current leasehold system, which it is felt does not adequately deliver for the IRC sector.

Rather than a leasehold interest in a retirement living unit being assigned from one occupier to the next in the usual way, ARCO is lobbying for an arrangement which would see occupational leases effectively being "sold back" to the operator once a prospective buyer is found. The primary advantage of this is that a new lease is granted every time a unit changes hands, meaning there is an opportunity for lease terms to be varied to reflect the current service offering provided by the operator. This is also helpful for operators, enabling them to function with a greater degree of flexibility and, crucially, be more responsive to the changing needs of their occupiers.

ARCO research shows that leasehold is not a popular tenure amongst prospective IRC occupants. A change to Leasehold Plus may be the kickstart the IRC sector needs to increase consumer confidence in the leasehold model and boost occupancy levels. This would also serve towards addressing another key challenge discussed at the conference yesterday - that the biggest current competitor to the IRC sector is people staying in their own homes.