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BELONG DIDSBURY RESIDENT

Case study:

Belong Villages

About Belong Villages

Belong Villages (Belong) is a not-for-profit residential nursing and care operator specialising in dementia. It is an exempt charity by virtue of being regulated by the CQC. It runs nine care villages, each consisting of a residential care home, apartments with care for independent living and a range of facilities, such as bistros, hairdressers and gyms, all open to the wider community.

 

More recently it has opened a nursery in one of the villages so residents and children can benefit from inter-generational communication. It has over 95% occupancy of its care homes, and exceptionally high level, showing the demand for its products, with 93% of its regulated services classed as “Good” or “Outstanding”, well above the national average.

Our work with Belong Villages

Allia C&C started working with Belong in 2017 after it sought to increase its portfolio by raising private finance and continues to be an active client.

 

The relationship between Allia C&C and Belong was strengthened during the COVID pandemic because, like many care homes in the UK, Belong faced high inflation, staff shortages, and skyrocketing construction costs. Hair trigger covenants, typical of bank debt, would have made it impossible for Belong to operate let alone grow its portfolio and the number of people it can look after.

 

Our work with Belong has seen multiple RCB Bond issues, refinances of the issuances, and retained bond sales to support its ambitions for growth. Most recently our work includes a part refinance of its original bond with a new RCB issue. This involved a tender for just over 50% of the old bonds and a new £29m 5-year issue at a 7.5% coupon.

The impact

Allia C&C has helped Belong with raising £95m in funding since 2017, which has included enabling the charity to open a ninth village at Birkdale in May 2025. This was made possible directly from the partnership between Allia C&C and Belong. Birkdale Village provides high-specification homes for 104 people, with 74 having 24-hour care, and nursing support beds, along with 30 independent living apartments.