CARE homes in Britain are being underfunded by as much as £85 per person per week, according to research commissioned the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The foundation claims the money that councils pay to residential and nursing homes for care is "below the reasonable costs of running an efficient and good home".

The report, written for the foundation by William Laing, of health and community care analysts Laing & Buisson, has been welcomed by care home owners in the region.

It is set against a spate of recent closures in York, North and East Yorkshire.

More than half-a-dozen, including Blair Atholl, in York, Dower House, in Escrick, and Wilberforce Lodge, in Pocklington, have closed their doors in the last year, citing poor fees as reasons for their demise.

The report suggests that average fees should rise from £385 to £459 a week for nursing home places, and from £268 to £353 per week at residential homes.

It says extra cash could be found through a Care Home Modernisation Grant payable to councils who meet tough minimum standards.

Mike Fisher, manager at St Catherine's, in Shipton-by-Beningbrough, and Rosevale in Wigginton, said: "This report reveals what we have been saying all along. It is pleasing that others are now seeing what we have been battling against."

Seamus Breen, head of community care at North Yorkshire County Council, said: "We have a great deal of sympathy (with care homes) over this. Our problem is whether we can meet this price or buy less care. The Government is not giving us enough money."

A City of York Council spokesman said it had already recently increased the levels of standard nursing placements to £390 per week and for residential to £275 per week."

Updated: 11:50 Wednesday, June 19, 2002