14.21R (Forest Care Home Limited) v Pembrokeshire CC [2010] EWHC 3514 (Admin), (2011) 14 CCLR 103
The local authority’s methodology failed to assess local costs of providing care home accommodation in the way that it had attempted to do. However, it had been lawful for the local authority to prevent care home owners charging top ups
Facts: Forest challenged Pembrokeshire’s methodology for assessing the cost of providing care accommodation locally, the fact that it took into account its own limited resources and the steps it took to prevent Forest seeking a contribution from residents.
Judgment: Hickinbottom J held that the local authority had mis-applied the methodology it had adopted for assessing the local capital costs of providing care and that, in other respects, its methodology had failed to capture particular aspects of local costs that it had set out to assess. However, the local authority had been entitled to include in the care home contracts provisions that prohibited care homes from seeking top up fees from residents placed by it.
Comment: a different type of approach was adopted by the local authority, and the Court of Appeal, in
R (Members of the Committee of Care North East Northumberland) v Northumberland CC.
1[2013] EWCA Civ 1740, (2014) 17 CCLR 117.