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McCarthy & Stone will close its eastern office in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and cut 50 jobs. It will axe 70 more at its Bournemouth headquarters and several regional offices.

The redundancies follow 300 job losses last year in two waves. The firm has about 700 employees remaining.

Howard Phillips, McCarthy & Stone鈥檚 chief executive, said: 鈥淭his is a sensible business decision, which would be sensible whoever owned the company.鈥�

A spokesperson for the firm said sales had been hit because would-be buyers could not sell their homes.

Vivien Aldred, secretary of the Home Builder鈥檚 Federation鈥檚 Retirement Housing Group, said older people were especially reluctant to buy in a difficult market. She said: 鈥淥lder people are more conservative. Buying a house is the biggest decision they can make.鈥�

Older people are conservative. Buying a house is the biggest decision they make

Vivien Aldred, HBF

The news comes after the Office of Fair Trading found that some of McCarthy & Stone鈥檚 contracts with customers had broken consumer law. A term in the contract allowed the firm to charge people who bought its properties a 鈥渢ransfer fee鈥� of 1% of the sale price when they later sold the homes. McCarthy & Stone agreed to remove the fee from future contracts and not enforce it in existing deals.

McCarthy & Stone is part-owned by Lloyds HBOS, which is understood to be planning a 鈥渢oxic fund鈥� for its property assets, which include stakes in Crest Nicholson and Countryside.

McCarthy & Stone has been in talks with its lenders since last summer in a bid to secure a refinancing deal on its 拢800m debt pile.