Questions have also been raised about a conflict of interest, as Reform’s adult social care cabinet member owns a private care company
Reform-run Lancashire County Council has been accused of “selling off the family silver”, as it looks at closing five council-owned older people’s residential care homes and five day centres.
The council launched an eight week consultation last month, and says the ten facilities have been identified for closure in order to save £4 million a year.
Condition surveys estimate that the five care homes require £5 million in investment to carry out maintenance, while two of the day centres need £1.3 million.
The consultation argues that more older people in Lancashire should be cared for in their own homes.
Questions around a conflict of interest have also been raised, as Reform councillor Graham Dalton, cabinet member for Adult Social Care, owns a private care company with his wife, called 1st for Care.
Dalton said to The Guardian that he has “no pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest” in the care home closures.
Reform says it needs to find £103m of cuts in Lancashire.
The cabinet has agreed to find adult social services savings of about £50m over the period of 2025-26 and 2026-27. Closing the care homes would account for only a fraction of those savings.
An Oxford University study has already found that publicly owned and provided adult social care has been dramatically reduced, falling from 42% of all provision to 9% since 2001.
Margaret France, a Labour councillor in Chorley, told The Guardian that it looked like “selling off the family silver” and “opening the door to private providers”.
Lib Dem County Councillor David Whipp said that while Reform argues older people should be cared for at home, and he agrees that is preferable, it is not always realistic.
“The problem is people come to a point in life where that is not suitable, not appropriate, and there needs to be places where people can go,” he said.
Responding to the news, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said on X: “If this is what happens when Reform runs a council, just imagine Farage running the country. Care homes closed and vulnerable people abandoned.
“We cannot let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain.”
Diane Abbott, who currently sits as an Independent MP, said: “No-one is really surprised.
Reform UK only has one policy, to use migrants and asylum-seekers as scapegoats for all the many problems in society. In office, they make the problems worse.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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