Latest news with #HelpTheAged
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Age UK ‘betraying elderly' by selling retirement home for millions
Age UK has been accused of betraying elderly residents by planning to sell off retirement flats in one of Britain's most expensive seaside towns. Residents living in the converted Georgian house in Salcombe, Devon, fear they will be forced to find new homes when it is sold off. The house, named Woodcot, overlooks Salcombe Harbour and its estuary, and was understood to have been gifted to Age UK to be used in perpetuity as a retirement home for the elderly. The property was left to the Plymouth Guild of Social Services by Elizabeth Jennings, a local philanthropist and owner of the house, in 1976 before being passed on to Help the Aged, which went on to become Age UK. Friends and relatives of those now living in the apartments at Woodcot have described Age UK's decision to sell the house to developers as 'a betrayal' of the charity's purpose to care for the elderly. Age UK's decision to sell the property has now been reported to the Charity Commission by a local activist who is in contact with a number of the home's residents. She told The Telegraph: 'Should charities be disposing of extremely valuable assets to raise income whilst at the same time evicting the people who they are supposed to be helping? Not to mention the impact that the loss of the property will have on the local community. It's a betrayal and it's quite shameful of Age UK. 'Many people, my own mother included, have lived out their final years there in contented peace and quiet. It is a truly fabulous place. It is very much part of the local community. How does selling the property for development benefit the people they are supposed to be helping, or the wider community – many of whom want to live there?' An elderly resident who moved to Woodcot 20 years ago said she was told at that point by Age UK that she would 'never have to move', only to be informed a few weeks ago that the property was to be sold. She told The Telegraph: 'I feel, along with the other residents, that we should be allowed to stay here for the rest of our lives. 'Instead we face the prospect of being evicted so the house can be sold off at huge profit to developers for luxury apartments. It's just not right.' A community hub Woodcot has long been divided into self-contained flats for elderly residents, with its gardens open to the public every month in the summer. The gardens are also used to stage Shakespeare plays, host church fetes and hold community events to raise money for local projects. It was built in 1797 by James Yates, a London merchant, and its three-storey stucco-fronted building with sash windows and a wide gable has stood as a local landmark on the walk from Salcombe to North Sands. Age UK has justified its decision to sell Woodcot, telling residents it has a legal responsibility to ensure they are making the best use of all the funds and resources available to them to deliver their charitable objectives. The charity said none of the residents have yet been evicted or given notice to leave. The building is estimated to be worth several millions of pounds in an area where sea-view properties are at a premium and the average price of a house is more than £970,000. Salcombe has come to be nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea for its popularity with second-homeowners from London, with new homes also at a premium. Speculation is rife in Salcombe that Woodcot is already in the process of being sold to two private developers, but Age UK maintains that no sale has yet been agreed. A spokesman for the charity said: 'We can confirm that sadly we've made the hard decision to explore selling Woodcot. We're looking into a number of things before a final decision about a sale is made and therefore do not expect anything to happen until 2026 at the earliest. None of the tenants have been evicted and no notice to terminate any tenancies has been given. 'We decided to speak to the tenants and let other key people in Salcombe know at this very early stage because we thought it important to be transparent about our thinking. However, doing this early does mean that unfortunately we don't have a lot more information or answers to questions at this stage. 'We're committed to communicating with and supporting tenants through this difficult time.' The spokesman added: 'We understand that the property is much loved locally and that different views and beliefs have developed over time about the nature of the transfer of Woodcot to us and the role of the property in the community. However, many of these aren't founded. 'The transfer of the property to Help the Aged did not include any restrictions that would stop it being sold or required Help the Aged as a charity to run it as a residential home for older people.'
Spectator
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Jarvis Cocker still has the voice
For bands of a certain vintage, the art of keeping the show on the road involves a tightly choreographed dance between past and present, old and new, then and now. It's not a one-way transaction: there should be some recognition that the people you are playing to have also evolved since the glory years of the indie disco and student union. Halfway through the first date of Pulp's UK tour following the release of More, their first album in 24 years, I started thinking about Withnail & I. Watching the film repeatedly as a young man, the booze-soaked antics of the dissipated 'resting actor' and his addled supporting cast seemed like great larks, albeit in extremis. The last time I watched it, approaching 50, sober as a judge, it played as the bleak tragedy it had surely always been. To steal the title of a Pulp song: something changed. The music of Pulp has always been scored through with melancholy and painful longing, but its emotional heft and essentially good heart is more evident these days. Singer Jarvis Cocker no longer hides behind so many layers of ironic distance. As he half-joked before 'Help The Aged', at 61 he now requires audience assistance to reach the high notes. More is Cocker's delayed, reluctant reckoning with adulthood. As he put it on 'Grown Ups', 'We're hoping that we don't get shown up/ 'Cos everybody's got to grow up.' Love was once a source of shame and embarrassment, he told us, but he has finally reached a gentlemanly accommodation with it. The shift was evident on new songs such as 'Slow Jam', 'Got To Have Love' and 'Farmer's Market' – a terrific orchestral ballad – but also in the low-key sense of gratitude that emanated from the stage. Cocker came across as a warmer, less wary figure, tossing out grapes and sweeties to the front rows. There were more obvious signs that we weren't in 1995 anymore. The group's core four – Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle and Mark Webber – nowadays resemble members of the history department of a Russell Group university who have decided to enliven the pre-retirement years by forming a band. They were joined by a string ensemble, a percussionist and several superb multi-instrumentalists, enabling Pulp2025 to shift seamlessly from the vast, corrupted Bond theme drama of 'This Is Hardcore' to a pared-down acoustic version of 'Something Changed'. In the midst of all that evolution, the trick was that it was all still very recognisably Pulp. Framed by purple velvet drapes, the set was a Sheffield bingo hall transported to an aircraft hangar, while an air of slightly shambolic indie-ism survived the transition to a slick arena show. Cocker still has the voice and, perhaps more importantly, the moves. His hands pirouetted like a good actor playing a bad magician. He corkscrewed into the air when excitement got the better of him, such as the moment when 'Common People' exploded into life. The song, which should by now feel glossy with overfamiliarity, was instead a juggernaut of propulsive energy. By then, they had played most of More. 'Tina' might be a classic Pulp title destined to be for ever waiting in vain to become a classic Pulp song, but much of the new material held its own among the gold-standard highlights: 'Sorted For E's & Whizz', an exhilarating 'Disco 2000', 'Mis-Shapes', 'Do You Remember The First Time?' and 'Babies', as well as outliers such as 'The Fear' and 'O.U. (Gone, Gone)'. Nothing on More could possibly have the impact of those songs, a point the audience instinctively understood. That was then, this is now. Both band and fans simply seemed appreciative of the opportunity for 'one last sunset, one final blaze of glory.' The Waterboys are also touring a new album, Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, a gonzo, genre-hopping 25-track sprawl that maps the life of the maverick US actor to the shifting currents of the postwar counterculture. They played around half of it in Edinburgh, in a single suite that unspooled against a Hopper-heavy backdrop of black and white stills and saturated Super-8 video footage. It felt fresh, colourful, eccentric and ultimately celebratory. On either side, they crunched out setlist staples such as 'Be My Enemy' and 'A Girl Called Johnny', which delivered power and punch without much in the way of surprises. The gig was at its best when the interplay between the musicians had space to stretch out. A reworked 'This Is The Sea' gathered an elemental power, and there was a nod to the recently departed Sly Stone during the still effervescent 'The Whole Of The Moon'. Like Pulp, the Waterboys have seen over 40 years' of active service, yet they are still evolving.
