Hundreds of care homes registered in tax havens, claims union

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Health and also in Housing, Local Government

Almost half of Southern Cross care homes are owned by companies based outside the UK, including hundreds registered in tax havens, according to a union dossier.

The GMB said 199 homes are registered in the Cayman islands, 43 in Guernsey, 41 in Gibraltar, 39 in Jersey, four in the British Virgin islands and one in the Isle of Man.

The union said it had established the names of 80 landlords who own 615 of the 750 homes but was still trying to find out details of the other owners.

National officer Justin Bowden said: "Southern Cross may be on its last legs but for Southern Cross's 31,000 residents and 43,000 staff, this looks like a case of 'out of the frying pan, into the fire'.

"These 80 landlords are a rag-bag bunch whose number includes overseas interests, tax dodgers and in some cases 'identity still unknown'. Many themselves are in financial difficulties.

"All this spells months more uncertainty and worry for residents and staff. Where is Government in this care scandal? The ears of the 31,000 elderly and vulnerable residents and 43,000 staff must be ringing from the deafening silence from Downing Street.

"The Government instead is today publishing a White Paper which says the future for all public services is outsourcing. Meanwhile, back in the real world, this is what happens when the private sector is given access to public money.

"The ideas in the White Paper are not new or does not contain any innovative new policies. It amounts to a dangerous re-threading of the bald tyre that led to today's crash at Southern Cross impacting on the care of 31,000 elderly and vulnerable residents in private sector care.

"It is also a formula for taxpayers' cash ending up in offshore tax havens as GMB research into the 80 known Southern Cross landlords show.

"That the government should seek to dress up this extension of privatisation on the day Southern Cross suspended its shares shows the extent to which it has lost touch with the real world."