L&G are expanding their Later Living offering with the launch of Guild Living

Today marks the launch of Legal & General’s new retirement concept, Guild Living, which will transform the way we age in UK towns and city centres.

Since we established Inspired Villages in 2017, we have seen incredible growth – with over 200 employees, capital commitments of half a billion pounds, six operational villages and a secured pipeline of nearly 1,500 additional new homes. Under the leadership of Jamie Bunce and the directors, Inspired Villages is playing a crucial role in tackling the undersupply of later living housing and redefining the way people age. This is being achieved through: great architecture, clever interior design, high quality customer service, passionate maintenance teams and thoughtful wellness programmes – all of which will help older people live better for longer.

But, with the number of over 65 year olds growing five times faster than the working age population, projections indicate that there will be a further 8.6 million UK residents in this age bracket by 2066 – an increase broadly equivalent to London’s entire population. Housing provision for this demographic therefore remains in short supply. Alongside population growth, urbanisation is an increasing global phenomenon. According to the UN, the number of older people living in urban areas increased by nearly 24% between 2001 and 2011.

Catering for over 65’s who want to remain in or relocate to a major UK town or city, today Legal & General has launched a new later living business which will transform the way we age in UK city centres.

What is Guild Living?

Guild Living is a developer and operator of later living communities, backed by a team of global experts in design, development and wellness.

The scale of the later living opportunity is vast, warranting a new business and management team that will be dedicated to developing communities in an urban environment, complementing Inspired Villages’ existing offering. Launching with two first sites, located in Epsom and Bath, Guild Living’s ambition is to deliver over 3,000 new homes over the next five years.

Building out the Guild Living team

Working closely with the team at Legal & General, the business will be led by CEO, Michael Eggington, and Design and Innovation Director, Eugene Marchese. It aims to have more than 50 full time employees by the end of this year and will also be advised by a team of academic experts, including Professor Malcolm Johnson of Channel 4’s documentary “Old People’s Home for 4 year olds”.

Delivering on our core purpose

Forming an excellent extension of Legal & General’s retirement ecosystem, together both Inspired Villages and Guild Living will offer a breadth of choice for our older demographic, in or out of town. As such, alongside Inspired Villages, it will be dedicated to delivering spectacular outcomes for residents and helping to address spiralling health and social care spend resulting from a lack of housing provision for this demographic. The sector offers a £100 billion investment opportunity and we see the opportunities for cross business collaboration to be enormous.