£250m care profits spark outrage as workers struggle on poverty wages

Private care companies in North East England, South Yorkshire, and the West Midlands made over £250 million in profits between 2021 and 2024. A new report reveals that a significant portion of these firms are owned by private equity or tax haven-based entities. The findings have sparked calls for government intervention to reform how care services are funded and managed.

The investigation, part of the Reclaiming Our Regional Economies (RORE) programme, shows that local authorities in these regions spent £3.8 billion on care services in 2024 alone. Despite this spending, frontline care workers often earn below the living wage, while company directors take home salaries up to 60 times higher than the average wage.

Over a third of the firms analysed are linked to private equity or tax havens. These companies paid out £45 million in dividends to shareholders and £33.6 million in interest—with up to 60% of that interest going to the same types of owners. The report highlights how profit extraction is affecting care quality and staff pay. Author Ann Cleeves has backed the report’s conclusions, stressing the need to address profit-driven care models. The full findings are now available online, urging policymakers to limit profit extraction and reform procurement processes.

The report calls on the government to take action against excessive profit-taking in the care sector. It proposes stricter rules on procurement and ownership transparency to ensure public funding benefits workers and service users. The findings suggest that without reform, financial disparities between executives and staff will continue to grow.