Member

I take the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Sanderson, that there is for profit and there is for profit—some are better and some are worse. In many contexts in your Lordships’ House, I have expressed great concern about the impact of private equity and its model of loading with debt, and this picks up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, in her amendment. We have seen this twice already in age care homes; we have been through a cycle in which we got very close to large numbers of homes under one private equity owner closing because they were loaded with debt. Care homes are obviously similar, but in some ways it is slightly less of a risk because so many have been put in the poorest areas with the lowest property prices, whereas age care homes in areas with higher property prices are sold off for development into luxury flats, and that covers the debt. None the less, there is a real risk with that model.