What councils pay for care homes
In 2024-25 the middle council in England spent £968 a week on a residential care home place for someone over 65, and £1,085 a week on a nursing place. Across 152 councils, residential ranged from £649 in Blackburn with Darwen to £1,448 in Hounslow.
This is what the council spent, averaged over every placement it paid for, not a fee anyone is quoted. People paying for themselves are usually charged more: the Competition and Markets Authority found a 41% gap on average in 2017. Nursing figures exclude NHS-funded nursing care, which the NHS pays to the home on top.
Calculated from the Department of Health and Social Care’s Adult social care finance report 2024-25: each council’s gross spend on long-term placements for over-65s divided by the weeks of care it bought, across every type of need. Residential is what councils paid independent homes; nursing covers all placements. Councils that bought fewer than 520 weeks are left out. Scotland is not in this report: see who pays for a care home.
| Council | Residential, a week | Nursing, a week |
|---|---|---|
| Barking and Dagenham | £1,096 | £1,080 |
| Barnet | £1,036 | £1,078 |
| Barnsley | £819 | £930 |
| Bath and North East Somerset | £1,016 | £1,003 |
| Bedford | £1,055 | £1,011 |
| Bexley | £1,071 | £1,184 |
| Birmingham | £826 | £894 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | £649 | £818 |
| Blackpool | £758 | £901 |
| Bolton | £895 | £891 |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | £1,295 | £1,341 |
| Bracknell Forest | £1,166 | £1,325 |
| Bradford | £828 | £930 |
| Brent | £1,010 | £1,237 |
| Brighton and Hove | £1,098 | £1,270 |
| Bristol, City of | £1,146 | £1,124 |
| Bromley | £934 | £965 |
| Buckinghamshire | £1,183 | £1,244 |
| Bury | £820 | £991 |
| Calderdale | £846 | £1,234 |
| Cambridgeshire | £990 | £1,128 |
| Camden | £1,101 | £1,232 |
| Central Bedfordshire | £902 | £1,051 |
| Cheshire East | £849 | £1,055 |
| Cheshire West and Chester | £915 | £985 |
| City of London | £848 | £968 |
| Cornwall | £1,062 | £1,157 |
| County Durham | £1,094 | £697 |
| Coventry | £854 | £937 |
| Croydon | £1,109 | £1,186 |
| Cumberland | £932 | £1,004 |
| Darlington | £824 | £710 |
| Derby | £738 | £810 |
| Derbyshire | £973 | £1,144 |
| Devon | £1,023 | £1,317 |
| Doncaster | £822 | £930 |
| Dorset | £1,254 | £1,282 |
| Dudley | £741 | £1,069 |
| Ealing | £1,278 | £1,159 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | £1,001 | £1,576 |
| East Sussex | £947 | £990 |
| Enfield | £1,013 | £935 |
| Essex | £1,085 | £1,134 |
| Gateshead | £996 | £1,060 |
| Gloucestershire | £1,005 | £1,384 |
| Greenwich | £948 | £1,559 |
| Hackney | £990 | £1,123 |
| Halton | £729 | £773 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £1,124 | £1,094 |
| Hampshire | £1,200 | £1,359 |
| Haringey | £1,000 | £1,168 |
| Harrow | £1,089 | £1,227 |
| Hartlepool | £922 | £957 |
| Havering | £1,190 | £1,248 |
| Herefordshire, County of | £1,295 | £1,201 |
| Hertfordshire | £922 | £1,043 |
| Hillingdon | £1,067 | £1,140 |
| Hounslow | £1,448 | £1,460 |
| Isle of Wight | £888 | £1,044 |
| Islington | £1,177 | £1,318 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,317 | £1,228 |
| Kent | £1,096 | £1,277 |
| Kingston upon Hull, City of | £784 | £1,117 |
| Kingston upon Thames | £1,407 | £1,055 |
| Kirklees | £903 | £1,342 |
| Knowsley | £769 | £946 |
| Lambeth | £1,398 | £1,322 |
| Lancashire | £845 | £1,131 |
| Leeds | £744 | £987 |
| Leicester | £1,062 | £1,306 |
| Leicestershire | £915 | £1,032 |
| Lewisham | £961 | £1,263 |
| Lincolnshire | £769 | £757 |
| Liverpool | £810 | £965 |
| Luton | £893 | £916 |
| Manchester | £728 | £1,016 |
| Medway | £1,100 | £968 |
| Merton | £1,130 | £1,118 |
| Middlesbrough | £837 | £1,071 |
| Milton Keynes | £1,040 | £1,118 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £911 | £967 |
| Newham | £1,267 | £839 |
| Norfolk | £1,129 | £1,199 |
| North East Lincolnshire | £716 | not published |
| North Lincolnshire | £718 | £745 |
| North Northamptonshire | £1,151 | £695 |
| North Somerset | £901 | £1,011 |
| North Tyneside | £921 | £934 |
| North Yorkshire | £1,094 | £1,403 |
| Northumberland | £886 | £900 |
| Nottingham | £733 | £941 |
| Nottinghamshire | £840 | £1,085 |
| Oldham | £705 | £989 |
| Oxfordshire | £1,013 | £1,123 |
| Peterborough | £944 | £974 |
| Plymouth | £873 | £1,021 |
| Portsmouth | £1,036 | £1,463 |
| Reading | £1,002 | £1,125 |
| Redbridge | £943 | £1,048 |
| Redcar and Cleveland | £805 | £677 |
| Richmond upon Thames | £1,389 | £1,403 |
| Rochdale | £796 | £1,193 |
| Rotherham | £706 | £986 |
| Rutland | £1,039 | £509 |
| Salford | £844 | £1,159 |
| Sandwell | £1,018 | £1,025 |
| Sefton | £788 | £944 |
| Sheffield | £786 | £780 |
| Shropshire | £918 | £1,223 |
| Slough | £1,154 | £1,130 |
| Solihull | £1,124 | £1,143 |
| Somerset | £1,135 | £1,082 |
| South Gloucestershire | £1,262 | £1,339 |
| South Tyneside | £780 | £1,166 |
| Southampton | £990 | £1,293 |
| Southend-on-Sea | £929 | £959 |
| Southwark | £1,005 | £960 |
| St. Helens | £808 | £1,093 |
| Staffordshire | £1,063 | £1,352 |
| Stockport | £960 | £1,107 |
| Stockton-on-Tees | £835 | £916 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | £780 | £1,164 |
| Suffolk | £1,080 | £1,058 |
| Sunderland | £931 | £1,028 |
| Surrey | £1,049 | £1,004 |
| Sutton | £1,088 | £1,128 |
| Swindon | £925 | £1,018 |
| Tameside | £790 | £1,305 |
| Telford and Wrekin | £970 | £1,187 |
| Thurrock | £744 | £910 |
| Torbay | £1,091 | £1,208 |
| Tower Hamlets | £1,157 | £1,167 |
| Trafford | £946 | £1,285 |
| Wakefield | £756 | £1,105 |
| Walsall | £796 | £896 |
| Waltham Forest | £1,202 | £1,236 |
| Wandsworth | £1,262 | £1,231 |
| Warrington | £937 | £1,086 |
| Warwickshire | £858 | £975 |
| West Berkshire | £1,111 | £1,178 |
| West Northamptonshire | £1,043 | £988 |
| West Sussex | £1,032 | £1,098 |
| Westminster | £1,271 | £1,162 |
| Westmorland and Furness | £959 | £1,004 |
| Wigan | £780 | £1,034 |
| Wiltshire | £1,089 | £1,062 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | £1,201 | £1,490 |
| Wirral | £741 | £819 |
| Wokingham | £1,181 | £1,274 |
| Wolverhampton | £723 | £917 |
| Worcestershire | £965 | £1,096 |
| York | £1,018 | £1,212 |
Questions people ask
- How much does a care home cost a week in England?
- What councils spend is the best measured figure published: in 2024-25 the middle council spent £968 a week on a residential place for someone over 65, and £1,085 on a nursing place. People paying for themselves are usually charged more, and fees vary home by home, so ask each home for its weekly fee in writing.
- Which council pays the most for care homes?
- For residential care for over-65s in 2024-25, Hounslow spent the most at £1,448 a week and Blackburn with Darwen the least at £649. For nursing care, East Riding of Yorkshire was highest at £1,576 a week.
- Why do self-funders pay more than the council?
- Councils buy many places on long contracts and often set the rate they will pay. Homes make up the difference by charging people who pay for themselves more. The Competition and Markets Authority found self-funders paid 41% more on average in 2017, about £236 a week at the time.