Labour claim some Lancashire residents will still have to sell their homes to pay for care because of government's 'broken promise'

After clashing with Boris Johnson over the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the proposals currently progressing through Parliament were at odds with the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto commitment that nobody in need of care would have to sell their property to pay for it.

The Prime Minister had responded to that accusation in the Commons by declaring that the government was “taking away the anxiety from millions of people up and down the land about their homes” with its plan to impose an £86,000 cap on the amount someone will have to contribute towards personal care costs over their lifetime.

However, Labour later published an analysis claiming that homeowners whose dwellings are worth less than £186,000 would be worse off as a result of an amendment to the proposals as they were originally set out in September.

The change – which was voted through by MPs earlier this week on a reduced government majority – means that any financial support provided by local authorities will not count towards the cap on an individual’s care costs, only the amount that the person pays themselves.

Opponents of the move say that it will result in poorer people making the same contribution to their care as the better off.

Labour cited separate House of Commons Library analysis showing that someone with assets – in savings or house value – of £100,000 would contribute 80 percent of their wealth to care costs under the revised plan, compared to 75 percent under the original proposal. The difference is more stark for those with assets worth less – an individual with £75,000 in assets would use up 73 percent of their wealth compared to 55 percent as the policy was originally conceived.

Speaking to the LDRS, Sir Keir said: “If you’re in [say] Burnley and you read the Conservative Party manifesto, you think: ‘Ah, right, I won’t now have to sell my house in order [to pay] for social care, because that’s what I’ve been promised.

“I would have thought that there are very many people in Burnley who simply wouldn’t be in a position to raise £80,000 plus unless they either sold their house or treated it as a form of inheritance tax.

“The identifiable promise that’s been broken is the promise to people in Lancashire that they wouldn’t have to sell their house, when I think it’s pretty clear that very many families will end up having to do so,” Sir Keir said.

According to the latest data from the website Right Move – based on figures from HM Land Registry – the average house price in Lancashire is currently £195,072, just above the £186,000 level at which Labour claims homeowners will be worse off because of the changes to the reform plans.