McCarthy Stone
Building community and political support for later living development
How we helped
Industry
Client
McCarthy Stone
Our role
Cavendish worked closely with McCarthy Stone’s regional teams to develop a proactive community engagement strategy designed to strengthen support for proposed developments and improve planning outcomes.
Across consultation programmes, stakeholder engagement and digital communications, we focused on reframing retirement housing from a traditional planning debate towards a broader conversation around wellbeing, independence and the growing social challenge of loneliness among older people.
Alongside local engagement activity, we developed an emotive campaign film highlighting the human impact of loneliness and positioning later living communities as part of the solution to a wider societal challenge.
The challenge
For McCarthy Stone, securing planning consent efficiently was critical to sustaining growth and delivery across a highly scrutinised development environment.
Despite the growing need for later living accommodation, retirement housing schemes often faced political resistance, community opposition and a limited understanding of the wider social and economic value they could deliver.
The business needed to improve first-time planning approval rates while reshaping perceptions of later living developments among communities, stakeholders and decision makers.
The impact
Our work helped strengthen public and stakeholder support for McCarthy Stone developments and contributed to a significant improvement in first-time planning approvals.
The programme helped increase first-time consent rates from 64% to 80%, while also strengthening wider understanding of the social value and community benefits associated with later living housing.
By reframing retirement housing around wellbeing, independence and social connection, the campaign helped build a more constructive environment for engagement around future developments.
