The following article is a comment piece from Abbeyfield Chester resident George Morris for Unite the Union Housing Workers branch’s Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC).

I am a resident of Abbeyfield Chester, a retirement scheme that claims its residents enjoy supported housing with:

high standards of accommodation, companionship and a support service designed to promote independence.

At least, that’s according to the Abbeyfield website.

They also claim to treat residents with dignity and respect. This is all we residents could ask for, but we also know that this carefully curated shop window is nothing like the reality for us residents.

Abbeyfield Chester retirement scheme: our story

Over the last few years, the residents of Abbeyfield Chester, most of whom are in their eighties and nineties, and many of whom have mobility issues plus dementia, have endured unsafe conditions and overly aggressive behaviour by management.

In one incident last year, a resident was startled by a loud crash as her bathroom cabinet detached from the wall. It was directly above the toilet, and if the resident had been in situ, then the likelihood is that she would have either been killed outright or would have suffered serious, life-changing injuries.

A local councillor intervened, attempting to force Abbeyfield Chester into inspecting and moving the bathroom cabinets in our flats. This has still not happened. I have no record of my bathroom cabinet being inspected, and it is certainly in the same place as those of my neighbours – directly above our toilets.

Alongside the fear of injury, the bullying and discrimination of vulnerable residents is also intolerable. One had his mental health condition weaponised by Abbeyfield. Incredibly, a trustee-director who had called the residents together for a meeting, alleged in front of the other residents that he had presented at the Countess of Chester Hospital with a mental health episode.

In fact, his GP had referred him to the hospital because of suspected Arterial Temporitis – a physical health condition which is caused by inflammation of the arteries and which can lead to loss of vision.

The big silence

In October 2024, after attempts to resolve the problems locally with Abbeyfield Chester, a formal complaint was made to the national organisation, Abbeyfield England. Nearly a year on, it is still sitting on file and nothing has changed.

In response to our complaint, Abbeyfield England claimed that it has no power to investigate complaints about local Abbeyfield societies. Despite this, they recently issued Abbeyfield Chester with a ‘Certificate of Excellence’. This highlights the duplicitous and misleading appearance of quality control that comes about through the odd structure of Abbeyfield housing.

Abbeyfield England is not the head office for the Abbeyfield almshouses that are dotted around the country, like ours in Chester. If you read the Abbeyfield statements carefully, it is clear that they are trying to have it both ways – while building an idyllic picture of local Abbeyfields and shared high standards, it is also careful to make sure that the independence of each organisation is emphasised.

Abbeyfield’s odd structure

There are around 100 or so local Abbeyfield societies, and all are independent of each other, not subsidiaries of Abbeyfield England in the way that a traditional housing group might structure its organisation.

Abbeyfield England says that it is there to:

empower member societies in their delivery of [the Abbeyfield] vision, whilst also celebrating the independence and localism of Abbeyfield.

In other words, it is there to create the appearance of a unified organisation, but as our experience has shown, it is not willing to take responsibility for what happens in Abbeyfield homes.

The local societies who actually own the Abbeyfield homes have only a weak line of accountability to Abbeyfield England. The local organisations operate as affiliates who buy into a brand, with the role of Abbeyfield England being to provide “membership services and strategic direction”, nothing more, and certainly not to enforce the high standards it claims for itself on its website.

Abbeyfield England’s ‘Certificate of Excellence’ is meaningless. Meantime, in the walled city of Chester, the Abbeyfield residents and their families and friends, are still waiting for answers.

Feature image via Youtube/ThFree Reign Productions

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.