Tuesday 25th November 2025

Going for growth

Our Growth and Renewal Programme is delivering Christian care for the future

When I arrived at Pilgrims’ Friend Society in September 2019, I was introduced to the Renewal Programme – a commitment to build six new care homes in the next decade. It was an exciting and challenging vision to make sure we could keep looking after older people in Christian communities.

Now known as the Growth and Renewal Programme (GRP) and encompassing not just building new homes but welcoming existing homes into the Pilgrims’ Friend Society programme, we’re at a point where we’re seeing a multitude of opportunities come our way. In order to be able to viably operate more homes and housing in a tight fiscal environment such as the UK care sector, we are exploring new ways to ensure that we can go for growth!

So, let’s re-cap…

The GRP kicked off with Middlefields House in Chippenham which opened in 2021, then between April 2022 and April 2025 we have been joined by Koinonia Christian Care Home in Worthing, Emmaus House in Whitehaven, Homesdale care and housing in Wanstead, Bridgemead in Bath, and most recently we’ve been blessed by Bethany House in Preston.

We have had to say goodbye to two of our homes in recent years and the care home at Homesdale was closed in 2024 but only after it was announced that plans were beingmadetorebuilda45-bed home in its place. When we do the maths, we land at an overall increase of 108 of places for people to come and live with us, not counting the 45 we’re expecting at Homesdale. Adding to this is the 70 flats at Homesdale, although we expect that number to go down to 64 as the new care home takes shape, which means that, in 2026, we anticipate we will be providing homes for around 200 more people than we were five years ago.

Just for starters…

All of this is underway, but that’s just for starters! As well as the new home at Wanstead we recently announced that we’ve bought land in Crawley on which we plan to build a brand-new 72-bed home, and we are in conversation with potential partners as we explore options to build another new home in Worthing which we anticipate would also be home to at least 72 people.

And from there we are exploring options to buy a second-hand home in or around Harrogate to replace our wonderful but ageing Emmaus House, and in Bedford we are looking at options to replace Dorothea Court – also wonderful but ageing – so that we can keep providing housing in the area but with the addition of care as well.

In addition to all this, we’re in conversation with another provider about some existing homes which we hope to be able to welcome into the Pilgrims’ Friend Society in due course, and we’re also looking at investing in our existing provision at Finborough Court in Great Finborough and Milward House in Tunbridge Wells.

This article was first published in the Winter 2025 edition of
The Pilgrims’ Magazine

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Funding our vision of growth

Inevitably, the tricky part has never been the will to do more but getting the financial situation in the right place to enable that growth. We have been blessed by some significant gifts and legacies that have built our reserves which allows us to put down deposits and pay for some costs and so in the last year new avenues have been explored to see how Pilgrims’ Friend Society could fund growth.

Led by Julian Hillman, our Director of Finance, we’ve been looking at ways of borrowing money to help us make this vision of growth a reality. This is a decision that the Executive Team and trustees have taken seriously, aware that this isn’t a route the organisation has taken before and one that needs to be thought through carefully and with a clear sense of stewardship of the funds God has already given us.

We have been talking with some banks about options for borrowing and some investment companies about leasing – a common approach to building new care homes. Leasing companies will fund the buildings and the operator – in this case Pilgrims’ Friend Society – will make the building a home.

We are taking care to ensure that the organisations we do business with understand our Christian heritage and our desire to create Christian communities in which older people flourish,” says Julian. “We are passionate about the way our Christian communities support and encourage older people on their faith journey and we want to do our bit to make sure God’s work thrives long into the future. The cost of building a new home has increased significantly in recent years and where charitable income used to enable us to invest in the future we now need greater financial investment. The only way we can confidently build for the future and so sustain the mission for generations to come is to explore options such as loans and leasing.”

Of course, leases and loans are still business transactions and any funds which are provided by these companies will be paid back over the coming years (just like with domestic mortgages), but we are making sure that that financial burden can be borne by our operational income in the long-term.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

While there is much to consider with the growth of the work of Pilgrims’ Friend Society, one thing is unchanging – God is at the heart of all we do, He has been since 1807, and He will always be.

We have recently been reflecting on this verse from Isaiah:

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ (Isaiah 30:21)

We pray continually for God’s guidance with listening ears and confidence that He will show us the way, we are certain that He will tell us which way to turn.

Things to pray for:

• The existing care and community in our homes and housing
schemes, especially where buildings are ageing and make delivering great care harder
• Our newest homes and those we hope to welcome in the future
• Our trustees and Executive Team

Find out more about the Growth and Renewal Programme here