We are still waiting for the Government's response to the Competition and Market Authority's (CMA) market study into care homes which was due by the end of February. That study estimated that the average cost of care for a self-funder is around 40% more than local authorities pay.

Care home operators and investors are waiting to see how the government responds, though it’s unlikely, at this stage, that it will support removing price-differentiation because of the very significant public funding gap, the likely consequential polarization of the market and the disincentive to accept local authority funded residents.

In the meantime, since the CMA’s report was published in November 2017, the CMA has commented on the charging of ‘death fees’ and now the ugly accusations of ‘revenge evictions’, the eviction of residents or banning visitors as a punishment for making a complaint is in the spot-light. The scale of this problem is part of an on-going CMA investigation.

Consumer law issues in care homes continue to make the news.

Care home providers have been warned that evicting residents because their family members have made complaints could be illegal.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is examining the scale of the problem as part of an ongoing investigation into the sector following its release of a major report in November (see BREAKING NEWS: CMA finds £1bn care funding shortfall).