I have free will. Responsible for my own actions. I should ask for forgiveness, yet, I declare I do not seek teshuva… I’m unrepentant. 

... please, go with me, there’s something that must be said. Here goes…

I’ll let that sink in.

May I expand?

Private firms own 94% of the UK’s care-home beds. 

The 26 largest providers put £261m of fee income into paying off debts, of which £117m goes to companies related to them… which the think tank, CHPI described as “a known way of avoiding tax and hiding profits”.

We can estimate, £1.5bn is taken out, sent to tax-havens, in the form of rent, profit, directors’ fees and debt repayments, rather than being spent on the care of residents and decent wages for front-line staff.

Dozens of Scotland’s care home buildings are owned by companies based in tax havens, controlled by global hedge-funds, private equity and the Chinese government. At least 44 Scottish care-homes were owned by companies based in tax-havens.

A report – Darkness at Sunrise, by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability & Research and Public Services International, reveals the extent to which UK care-homes shift profits offshore; 

‘… ownership through tax havens enables more than 60 care homes to report losses in the UK while foreign investors make a killing in a sector subsidised by public spending…’

HC-One, run by chair of HEE and sits with the board of NHSE, David Behan, has about 8,000 residents. He increased fees by 3.6%… above inflation. Accounts published in June show £2million in ‘management fees’ was extracted during the year. 

Accountancy experts claim HC’s owners have used ‘a complex web of loans and shell companies in tax havens to extract cash and reduce taxes payable in the UK’. They have just sold 52, presumably, loss making, homes.

Whilst care home profits are being send to tax havens, almost 3/4 of frontline care workers in England are earning below a 'real' living wage and the statutory minimum, which is only £8.72 per hour.

Question; why should granny sell her house, to create the cash, to live in a care-home where the profits go to tax havens (waving two fingers at taxpayers) and the wages of the staff are so low the tax-payer has to provide income support and universal credit.

Low-wage-low-skill, yup this is a rip-off. The tax payer doesn’t get a whiff of the profits and has to fork-out, to top up workforce wages. 

What to do? We need a legislator an agitator, an innovator and an orchestrator. 

Legislate; two laws... care home provider’s management and their assets must be owned and maintained in the UK, subject to UK taxation and the other law... differentiating care-workers wages. Set a special, legal minimum. £15ph?

Agitate; a tension between the reality and what’s right. Use the press and social media, to ostracise the likes of Behan and other operators. Expose them, as sector pariahs. 

Innovate; tax breaks to encourage the use of technologies to improve care and mandatory, career-based skills training. 

Orchestrate; organisations representing the industry, who are largely by-standers, force them to use their voice, to drive a solution and get Jeremy Hunt’s Select Committee to wake their ideas up.

All the time yer-granny has to sell her house in Camberwell or Calderdale, to send profits to the Cayman Islands and her relatives have to subvent the wages of the people looking after her, this perpetuates a low-wage-low-skill-rip-off.

Bojo’s right. 

[email protected] 

Know something I don't - email me in confidence.

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