Privatisation of Highland care homes back on table

The privatisation of every care home run by Highland Council is back on the agenda. The Press and Journal can reveal that e-mail messages exchanged by senior officials have confirmed that the controversial option has been discussed by senior members of the local authority’s administration at secret talks.

The correspondence was obtained by the opposition SNP group on the council.

Last night, a senior citizens group accused local authority officials of being “hell-bent” on building a case for privatisation of the 19 homes.

The full council voted 41-22 to delay the tendering process for a £30million project to build five new homes promised by the Independent-Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition running the authority.

Two of them proposed for Inverness and the others for Fort William, Grantown, Muir of Ord and Tain.

The delay has fuelled fears that privatisation – which was ruled out two years ago – could be back on the agenda as part of long-term plans to cut spending in the Highlands by millions of pounds.

At the weekend, the council’s Lib Dem budget leader, David Alston, warned that national economic turmoil meant he could not rule out “hiving off” the homes as a result of a “business review” by officials.

It is now known that prior to a full council meeting at the end of last year, five senior cross-party administration members rejected options of possible closures and “the transfer of all council care homes and their operation to the private sector or a trust”.

Housing and property director Steve Barron said in an e-mail to chief executive Alistair Dodds that “building and running new (care) homes will add to the significant financial challenges we face”.

Mr Alston said yesterday: “When we were elected it was a different world, financially.

“We’ve got to balance the council’s books. But there is a fundamental question about the extent to which the council should be directly involved in the provision of care.

“There will always be a case for the council being involved in remote areas where the private or voluntary sector is not going to provide, but the world’s changed. We’ve got to ask the question – if we could make significant savings there, that’s an option for the council.”

He challenged objectors to suggest where equivalent budget savings could be found.

SNP group leader John Finnie said: “When we were in the administration (2007-08) we not only reversed the privatisation of the council’s care homes and started a carefully costed replacement building programme, but also invested millions in home care for our older folk.

“The papers I have obtained lay bare the contrast you get from a Lib Dem-led administration whose true intentions are to abdicate responsibility for our older people.”

Lochaber councillor Donald Cameron, of the council’s Independent Alliance, and Inverness area councillor Roddy Balfour, of the Independent Members Group, reaffirmed their view that the care homes should be retained by the council.

Highland Senior Citizens Network chairman Ian McNamara said: “It is evident that council officers are bent on creating a case for privatisation built solely on business reasons rather than on political values in its covert strategy to manipulate the views of members.

“It will be a poor day for local government and local democracy when a decision affecting the welfare of one of its most vulnerable groups is decided by a hypothetical balance sheet cynically biased to make potential costs of the care home project appear as large as possible, rather than by fulfilling the wishes of the community and its elected representatives.”