Care home visit brings down curtain on Alan Johnson's constituency career

Alan Johnson outside Alderson House with Philip Lovel (left), MD of Lovel Developments, and Richard Hoggart, MD of Burlington Care with the Alderson House staff

HULL West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson made his last constituency call before retirement when he officially opened a residential care home.

Mr Johnson, who was elected to the seat 20 years ago, combined his sense of humour with a serious political message during the visit to Alderson House, which is directly opposite Hull Royal Infirmary.

He said: “When I was invited to come and do this opening back in March we didn’t know anything about a snap general election and I didn’t know I was going to step down.

“This is the last engagement I will ever do as MP for Hull West and Hessle and I am looking for somewhere to go. There’s a nice little room down there…”

Alderson House closed as a care home more than two years ago but is due to welcome residents in the next two weeks following a major refurbishment by Burlington Lovel, a joint venture by Lovel Developments of Beverley and Burlington Care, the Bridlington-based company which now operates 16 homes and employs 1,200 people.

The facility will offer 32 ensuite bedrooms immediately, with work due to start later this year on adding another 18 bedrooms by spring 2018. The project has created 35 new jobs, which will increase to more than 50.

Alderson House is part of a programme of expansion which has seen Burlington Care buck the trend within the sector by acquiring 10 homes during the last three years.

The company will embark on new build in addition to acquisition of failing properties which will be refurbished and remodelled to bring them up to standard. Burlington Lovel will start work later this year on building a new care home at Hessle.

Mr Johnson said: “This is a very nice facility and the issue of adult social care is going to be really important because there are too few places – about one in eight care homes have closed.

“There is a crisis caused by the good news that people are living much longer but that creates the issue about how we are going to look after them. It’s probably the biggest single domestic problem that all the parties are trying to grapple with.

“We need more high quality places and the brilliant staff need to be properly rewarded. This is a very difficult area of work. The people who work in adult social care are very skilled and that needs to be recognised.

“This refurbished Alderson House has 32 ensuite rooms and that will increase to 50. It’s not just the high quality of the facility that is significant. There is also the proximity to Hull Royal Infirmary. It is very important that adult social care premises are not far from the medical care that residents will need at that stage of their lives.

“I can’t remember the first function that I did after being elected but I know with this being the last one there could not have been a more important subject or a more important development.”

Lovel Developments specialises in delivering housing and health facilities. Last year the company completed the construction of a new building for Spire Hospital in Anlaby, a development which also includes 200 houses with space allocated for a new NHS medical centre.

Managing Director Philip Lovel said the expansion into residential care was a logical progression. He said: “People are living longer and they are going to need more care. There is an opportunity and a need for good quality operators. Burlington Care know how to run care homes successfully and we have a lot of experience on the development side.”

Burlington Care opened its first care home in Bridlington in 2007. The company expanded rapidly during its first year, consolidated when the recession hit and has accelerated to increase its portfolio from six care homes to 16 since 2014.

Richard Hoggart, Managing Director of the business, said: “We have excellent staff who go the extra mile and help to make us sustainable. Our vision is to create and develop care homes with an element of new build and also by remodelling existing care homes that are not working.

“Alderson House had been closed for a couple of years. We had to rewire the building, install new heating, decorate throughout, make the bedrooms bigger and all ensuite and we have recruited a very good team.”