“We can’t risk anyone seeing us,” Elsie* tells me as we sit down, her eyes darting towards the window behind us. “You don’t know who you can trust around here.”

I’m in the living room of an apartment in a Manchester retirement development, waiting for a few other residents to join us.

They arrive one by one to avoid suspicion. I was hoping to take photos and speak to staff, but it quickly becomes clear that’s not on the cards – the residents are afraid to even be spotted together. It feels like a covert operation. New Feature

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Like many of these developments, this one, operated by Adlington Retirement Living, was built specifically for elderly, vulnerable residents and promised to offer them a sense of community and “peace of mind” in t

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