August 21, 2025

BBC told Charity Commission should stop dawdling over recognition of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation

In a wide ranging BBC 5 Live Investigates programme on leasehold scandals – which can be heard here – Sir Peter Bottomley said the Charity Commission should recognise LKP’s application without further delays. He told interviewer Adrian Goldberg on May 24 (for which LKP reproduces the transcript below): “The Charity Commission need to register Leasehold […]

George Osborne’s childhood nanny faces £115,000 bills over right-to-buy flat

Farieda Chandoo, 61, George Osborne’s childhood nanny, is a passionate believer in the right-to-buy – which the Tories want to extend to housing associations – but her experience of owning a flat in a council block has been disastrous. Now her case, reported on LKP in February 2014 here has been reported in the Sunday Times. […]

Park home champion faces ruin over £44,000 libel dispute

– Pensioners in park homes raise £8,000 to help – The Small family are “latter-day Rachmans”, Commons told – ‘Anti-gay mob surrounds mobile home’ – Barristers step in with free assistance – 311 sign petition to DCLG demanding new management – Campaigner admits intemperate language   A blogger and champion of pensioners living in park […]

Bottomley tells BBC he will fight on for leaseholders

Sir Peter Bottomley, newly re-elected for Worthing West, told the BBC this morning that he will fight as hard as he can for leaseholders who have been ripped off. The interview on Brighton-based BBC Sussex also featured the retirement site Oakland Court where residents won a court case involving £137,000 paid in rent for the […]

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation thanks patron Ed Davey

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP is deeply saddened that one of its three MP patrons, LibDem Ed Davey, lost his Kingston and Surbiton seat at Thursday’s general election. With England voting for financial rectitude, and in alarm at the rising power of the SNP, only the Conservative party benefitted from the achievements of […]

Michelle Banks quits property managers’ trade body ARMA

Michelle Banks, the ARMA chief executive, is to step down in July. The announcement to ARMA members comes from ARMA chairman Martin Perry. “ … sadly I have to announce that Michelle Banks will not be joining us in this next phase [of ARMA-Q] having taken the decision to join her husband in retirement. “Michelle […]

We save money living at Woodchester Valley Village … but then we do all own it ourselves

When his retirement village outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire, went bust – with many of the leasehold properties unsold – Peter Wilson and the other residents decided to buy the site off the administrators, raised £2 million and now run the site themselves. The result is Woodchester Valley Village, a mutual ‘not for profit’ retirement village. What the elderly residents […]

Pier Management sends £120 subletting demand to the dead …

… Which did not even need to be paid by the living Leasehold reached a new low with Pier Management demanding a subletting fee from a man who is dead. Nor was a sublet fee payable had Mr A Gaffney, of Dublin, been alive. Pier Management admitted it had not read the lease before demanding […]

Three MPs that are worth voting for if you are a leaseholder

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP has no political affiliation, and our three MP patrons – Sir Peter Bottomley, Jim Fitzpatrick and Ed Davey – come from the three main political parties. The below explains what they have done for leaseholders: Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative) represents Worthing West, which has a high number of […]

Telegraph asks: Should you really buy a retirement property?

The Daily Telegraph yesterday published an excellent balancing article to the usual advert-friendly dross that accompanies features on retirement housing. It can be read here. Please do comment on it (and here, of course). Written by Fleet Street veteran Liz Hodgkinson, the article addresses the points raised by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation – which […]

ARMA ends four-month farce after finally saying who its members are …

But don’t feel any obligation to join on our account! ARMA has finally published a list of its full members – more than four months after making the more rigorous ARMA-Q the criteria for membership. Until today, the only clue as to who was a member of ARMA was the stream of congratulations posted on […]

Whistleblowers to the Serious Fraud Office ‘wasting their time’

Bad news for LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation, our MP patrons, and anyone else who cares about the Sisyphean labour of trying to encourage integrity and honesty in our corporate governance. The law firm Pinsent Masons has found that 2,500 whistleblowers approached the Serious Fraud Office, but that only resulted in a dozen […]