Most octogenarians are more likely to be researching their ideal care home rather than running it.
But for 83-year-old Charles Skene, his three weekly visits to Inchmarlo Retirement Village are just part of his routine as head of his north-east empire.
More than 30 years ago, the entrepreneur set about creating the first continuing care retirement community in the UK.
The concept was simple. He purchased an estate in the heart of Deeside with amazing views of the rolling Aberdeenshire hills and a grand manor big enough to be redeveloped into a multi-bedded care home.
Around the estate, he created, bit by bit, separate developments, with just under 200 homes for those aged 55 and over to buy to live out the rest of their days. Or until their care needs become so great they required round the clock care.
But little did he know when he purchased the land and started to develop that the oil price was about to crash to $9 a barrel and the north-east housing market was about to become stagnant.
With no one able to sell their homes, it was almost impossible for him to sell his new builds in a retirement village which was just taking off.
However, with perseverance, a bank loan and a concept that was unique and appealing, it took off and is still flourishing today.
But with continual changes of legislation, an ever-ageing population and Brexit looming over the country, how does the facility still make money and what challenges is the care of the elderly sector facing?
In order to see for myself how the business worked, Mr Skene invited me out for lunch at the Inchmarlo care home and drove me round the estate in his convertible red Mercedes.
As we passed each development, he greeted the residents by name, and they were not shocked to see him. It’s this personable touch that he thinks makes the residence a more sought-after place to live.
Mr Skene said when creating the development, he wanted those who lived there to have a high standard of living with care on hand.
To create that, he hired some of the best landscape gardeners, allows those who have bought their homes to redevelop them as they see fit, and uses the main care home as a source of entertainment, with a fully licensed bar and top-notch chefs.
As we toured along the main road up to the house, he explained: “This is known as the Queen’s Drive. As history would have it, Queen Victoria would instruct her driver to take her through Inchmarlo on her way to Balmoral because of the rhododendrons.”
And they really are quite a spectacle.
Houses on the estate range from one-bedroom flats, which sell for around £140,000, to four-bedroom homes, which can go for more than £400,000. And to those not in the know, it’s almost impossible to tell the development is solely for the retired community.
“The planning conditions to get this done were on the condition that those buying were 55 or over unless there are medical reasons why someone needs this particular type of accommodation,” Mr Skene said.
“We have a great mix of people up to about 100 years old. We have two particular houses that are still occupied by the first occupiers of the house, which means they have been here more than 30 years.
“What’s happening nowadays, you will have seen in all the reports, is that people are living much longer. My grandfather died in his 70s but I am 83 and still working full-time.
“Quite a number of people who used to live here (in the houses) are now in the main house and, of course, there may be people who live here who have their husband or wife in the main house.
“The advantage of that is that they can walk up and see their spouse any day they want and have lunch with them, but live semi-independently and close by.”
Mr Skene said he bought the development and converted the land all on bank financing.
He said: “It was when the oil price crashed from 30 dollars a barrel to nine and people couldn’t sell their houses. We had a difficult time getting all the money up front but eventually they all sold. The first development was of 41 flats and now we have 200 people who have bought houses here over the years.”
However, over the years, the healthcare sector has also come under significant challenges due to changes in legislation. Where before it was acceptable to house a number of residents within the same room of the main care home, every occupant now requires their own space.
He said: “At one point, we had 60 residents but it is down now to a lower figure because years ago, the Care Commission came in and said we no longer agree to have multi-bedded rooms.
“We had a lot of four-bedded rooms at that particular time so we had to do something like spend £250,000 in order to reduce the number of people living in the house, which is not exactly the most wonderful thing to do but that’s what happens you are subject to changes in opinions from the powers that be.”
After the initial success of the Inchmarlo Retirement Village, the entrepreneur decided to invest in further care homes around Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, and at one point hired 500 people within the sector.
But he realised that in order to make money, it was almost impossible to run retirement homes based on residents whose care is paid for by the state.
Mr Skene said: “Here the difference is most care homes have most or a very large percentage of people funded by local authority. Now the problem is if you are taking in people funded by the local authority, it’s almost impossible to make a profit on it because the rates they pay are so low, like ridiculously low, and the Government keeps changing the rules all the time, which does not help.
“For example when the national living wage was introduced, it cost us £30,000 in extra salaries and if you are dependent on people funded by the local authority, you can not go to them and say we need more money to keep in business so it is an extraordinarily difficult position to be in.
“I sold the three other care homes some years ago and concentrated on this one, focusing on expansion instead, but it is not easy to cater for how Britain is going to look after the increasing number of elderly people that are estimated to be growing in the times ahead.”
Another difficulty Mr Skene faces with the ageing population is that people are staying in the care homes for longer at sometimes reduced rates that were set when they first entered many years ago. That, coupled with the struggle to employ good members of staff and the restraints on foreign workers, makes it difficult to continue making money.
He added: “There is a factor that the residents pay to keep the running of the estate but we are not making as much money as we used to, partly because of the changes in government legislation which make it difficult.
“Also what we did a few years ago, which has come back to bite us on the backside at times, is we linked their service charge to a government inflationary index.
“Consequently, we have people who pay, because they’ve been here for such a long time, a tremendous amount less than other people pay in other retirement villages like this and there’s not much I can do about it as that’s the agreement we have with them.
“I made a mistake and I quite accept this. We should have only made it for a specific period of time because some of them have been here for about 30 years and there have been huge changes in government legislation, which is not necessarily reflected in our services charges.
“Other than that, staffing is difficult. Other changes which have affected us and every other care home and hospital in Britain is the fact that the reduction in overseas staff coming in has given us a major problem.
“Years and years and years ago, we used to have a lot of Philippine nurses and they were jolly good. We have a whole mixture of staff here from different countries and a lot of the overseas people are actually extremely good workers. We have a lot of locals as well but when we advertise for staff, we often find it’s the overseas workers who are interested in the positions.”
But one of the advantages Mr Skene believes the retirement village offers to residents is the ability to save them money in the long term.
“The advantage that we have here is that people come in and buy a house and go through a medical discussion with general manager and matron,” he explains. “If someone comes in who looks extremely unwell, the matron has the right to say I don’t think it’s right for you to buy a house, you need to go in and get care.
“The big selling point is that Mrs Bloggs can come in here and buy a house somewhere and call in additional support if and when required, and that can include having food delivered if they don’t want to cook. And when health patterns change – which they all do – then they can come in here for respite care and we have quite a lot of that. It allows them to recover from whatever it is they are suffering from and can get additional support to their homes.
“We can save someone like £30,000 a year if we can keep them in their own home longer than if they were to move into a home permanently, because taking in a carer or coming in here for respite care is fairly small compared to moving into the care home full-time.
“It is an investment for people on the estate. There is a difference between someone’s mother and father going into a home they have never been in before, but if they move up to the home from the estate they already know the staff and it makes it an easier transition.”
Queen Victoria would instruct her driver to take her through Inchmarlo on her way to Balmoral
