Care home veteran Robert Kilgour steps up spending
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Musselburgh-based Renaissance Care said a capital investment programme of “several million pounds” was underway as it revealed today that turnover in the coming year would top £20 million, more than doubling the size of the business in the last three years.
It now employs 800 staff across 12 care homes throughout Scotland. The firm recently purchased the Whitecraigs care home business in Glasgow’s south side from Four Seasons, marking its first establishment in the west of Scotland.
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Kilgour built up the Four Seasons Health Care business in the late 1980s and 1990s before stepping down in 1999, having created a UK-wide group with more than 100 care homes. He said: “We are committed to spending money on improving our care homes.
“I’ve been in this sector for a long time, and I’m determined to continue Renaissance Care’s growth and development making this a good company in which our staff can develop – hence we’ve doubled our training budget over the last three years.”
Kilgour, who is chairman of Renaissance Care, added: “This is a difficult time for the care home sector, with the Scottish Government imposing a challenging and not fully funded £8.25 per hour carer’s living wage from the start of this October.
“I am a firm believer in our hard-working staff being fairly rewarded, but there are some issues still to be resolved and we must wait to see the results of this most recent cost increase on the care sector.
“I fear that more care homes will close and fewer new ones will be built going forward leading to more ‘bed blocking’ in our NHS hospitals and more cancelled operations.”
Other investment includes the upgrading and refurbishment of a 20-bedroom private residential care unit at the C-listed Mathieson House – soon to open within the grounds of Renaissance’s existing 50-bedroom Letham Park care home in the Trinity area of Edinburgh.