Southern Cross says 250 of its properties are owned by care home operators, including Bondcare and Four Seasons, or landlords with “strong links” to operators who are ready to take over the homes.
However, the remaining properties have no finalised future plans and the GMB union said staff and residents face “months more uncertainty and worry”.
This group of landlords includes NHP, which has appointed former Priory boss Chai Patel as an advisor and is preparing to put his business Court Cavendish in control of the care homes. Jeremy Jensen, director of NHP, said: “Our commitment to continuity of care remains our top priority. We continue to finalise our plans and further announcements will be made in due course.”
Four Seasons and Bupa are in talks with smaller landlords. It is understood Four Seasons is ready to take control of “tens” of homes on top of the 45 it owns.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/8631186/Southern-Cross-admits-defeat.htmlSouthern Cross made a series of bad deals; it didn't want to be a property owner, so it sold its properties with an agreement to lease them back at an increasing rent. This worked fine for a few years, but the recession made local authorities and private people economise, so their occupancy rate has gone down, but they have to keep paying the full, and increasing, rent.
It makes more sense with a business for which it's quite hard to move (because you have residents, rather than, say, offices) to own its properties. The problem here was the business being run by optimistic accountants who thought they saw a good deal without thinking long-term.
Hopefully companies who know what they're doing can take over the homes not owned by care home operators. I don't expect any local authority can afford to do anything like that at the moment, more's the pity.
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