Our Customer Forum

Find out how our Customer Forum brings customers and McCarthy & Stone together to share feedback, shape improvements and influence decisions that affect their experience.

Customer Forum: A new way for customers to have their say…

The Customer Forum has been created to provide a meaningful and structured way for customers and McCarthy & Stone to engage and collaborate. It will give customers opportunities to influence, shape and review customer-focused policies, services, communications and business decisions that affect their experience.

Customer Forum purpose

The forum will provide customer insight on policies and services, help inform improvements and strengthen the connection between developments and the wider organisation. It's progress will be tracked, including examples of customer input, how feedback from the Customer Forum has influenced decisions, services or communications.

The Forum brings together representatives from different regions, development sizes, development types and tenure arrangements. It will meet quarterly, with additional regional or topic-specific sessions where a more focused discussion would be helpful.

Its role is advisory and focused on matters with broad relevance across the customer community. It does not replace formal complaints, governance, consultation or statutory processes, and it is not intended to deal with individual or site-specific cases.

Designed with customer input

The approach was tested with a smaller homeowner focus group before the Forum was established. Participants said the Forum should influence decisions and improvements. They also wanted clearer explanations of why decisions are made, opportunities to review communications and broad representation across regions, development types and tenures.

Customer Forum – 29th September 2026

Forum objectives

The first formal meeting took place on 29 September 2026. Alongside a business update, members were invited to review the draft Group Code of Conduct, which is intended to support consistent and professional service, accountability and confidence in service quality.

Members considered whether the draft reflected the behaviours and standards customers expect from McCarthy & Stone colleagues and representatives. They were asked what worked well, what appeared to be missing and where the wording or approach could be improved.

What we heard

Forum members broadly supported the purpose and principles of the draft, while asking how they would be applied consistently and reflected in customers’ everyday experiences. Communication was the strongest theme, with members calling for information that is clear, concise, timely, consistent, accessible and written in plain English.

Members also highlighted the importance of transparency, clear ownership and escalation routes, active listening, empathy, meaningful customer involvement, accountability when things go wrong, and consistent expectations for contractors and service providers.

You said, we did

Customers said...	How the draft was strengthened
Make communication clearer and give transparency greater prominence.	Stronger commitments to clear, timely, consistent and accessible communication in plain English, alongside openness, honesty and clarity.
Give customers clear points of contacts, ownership and escalation routes.	A new requirement was added that sets out the need for clear contact, ownership and escalation routes, including when an issue cannot be resolved locally.
Show how customer views are considered.	The customer involvement requirement was revised to make the consideration of customer views clearer.
Acknowledge mistakes and take corrective action.	A new service recovery requirement covers acknowledging mistakes, apologising where appropriate and taking corrective action.
Clarify organisational accountability and who different requirements apply to.	Wording that could weaken organisational accountability was removed, and customer-specific provisions were separated where relevant.

You can read the final version of the Group Code of Conduct here. (link to Code of Conduct PDF)