Buyer sought for retirement village after owner plunges into administration

The owner of a retirement complex in South Lanarkshire has plunged into administration.

Auchlochan Garden Village sits within 50 acres of ground and is home to 360 residents across a range of properties.

Facilities include restaurants and cafes, woodland and a lake, a community centre, hairdressing salon, laundry and chaplaincy.

The entire site, near Lesmahagow, is accessible by wheelchair and a village bus service runs daily to local shops or further afield for excursions.

It is understood that there will be no redundancies among the 216 staff at this stage.

The complex was said to have been making a loss since 2009, when it was acquired by MHA Auchlochan.

Methodist Homes – MHA Auchlochan’s parent association – has been providing “significant financial support” but losses have continued to accrue due to “uneconomic service charges, staff and maintenance costs and low occupancy levels”.

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Sam Monaghan, MHA chief executive, said: “This is not a decision we have taken lightly and to support the continuation of services during the process of administration, Auchlochan will be able to draw on a contingency fund of £5m from MHA.

“This will provide the best opportunity for new operators to be found, which includes the potential for leaseholders to set up their own management company.”

Mr Monaghan said a review of services had prompted the charity to withdraw from its retirement living schemes at Wesley Court in Granton, Edinburgh; Taransay Court in Milton, West Dunbartonshire; and St Andrew’s Court in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

Mr Monaghan said: “The schemes would be difficult to support without the larger infrastructure which Auchlochan gives us in Scotland.

“Together, these changes mean that MHA will no longer have any services in Scotland.”

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Insolvency practitioners Blair Milne, James Fennessey and Robert Young, of accountancy firm Azets, have been appointed joint administrators of MHA Auchlochan.

They will continue to operate the retirement village and care homes, and will appoint property agents to market the assets for sale.

Healthcare Management Solutions Limited has been appointed in the interim to oversee the day-to day-operations and “minimise the impact on residents, families, staff and suppliers”.

Mr Milne said: “Due to the scale and complexity of the development it will take time to develop a strategy for the administration.

“In the meantime, it will remain ‘business as usual’ and we will work closely with the Care Inspectorate, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership and specialist agencies to support residents and their families during the process.”

Professor Soumen Sengupta, director of health and social care for South Lanarkshire, said his team had met with the administrators.

He added: “We will continue to emphasise to the administrators the importance of them engaging with residents and their families appropriately, to listen to their concerns and respond to their anxieties.

“We will also work closely with the Care Inspectorate to engage with the administrators throughout what we appreciate will be an unsettling period for all involved.”

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