New operators take on Southern Cross homes

A THIRD of the care homes run by Southern Cross were handed over to new operators yesterday as part of plans to shut down the sector’s biggest operator.

Southern, which runs 752 sites and has 31,000 residents, said 250 homes are now in the hands of other operators, believed to include rivals Four Seasons Health Care and Bondcare.

These are the first homes transferred from the ailing care home giant since it announced it had no choice but to close after landlords refused to drop their rents to help it survive.

Southern also said it has now reached agreements to transfer 70 per cent of its homes – some 520 – to other providers and it is “confident” that all of its homes will be transferred to new operators over the next couple of months. None of its sites is expected to close.

Southern Cross is to be wound down because it was struggling to pay its rent as fees from local authorities and occupancy rates declined.

Privately-owned Four Seasons Health Care is to take over 140 of the homes, which will make it Britain’s biggest care home provider once Southern closes.

The “vast majority” of Southern’s 43,000 staff are expected to transfer to the new operators, though a small number of redundancies are expected, particularly in administration.

Southern also confirmed that chairman Christopher Fisher had stepped down to make way for restructuring specialist Stephen Taylor, who will help wind the company up.