Why Southern Cross failed
Apparently, one of the reasons that care home provider Southern Cross failed was that occupancy rates were not high enough.
TCF thinks it may have discovered why.
Southern Cross’s website lists 27 care homes under its ownership in Lancashire. Unfortunately, 12 of them aren’t actually in Lancashire.
Oh, and Goole isn’t in West Yorkshire, while Newcastle is in Tyne & Wear, not in Northumberland.
So is the main reason for low occupancy that the owners don’t actually know know where their homes are, thus making it difficult for potential customers to know where they are too?
And TCF wonders if this limited geographical understanding has anything to do with the fact that more than half of the care homes on the Southern Cross website are owned by offshore landlords, including these two in Cumbria, owned by firms based on the Isle of Man and Jersey.
£300 million in debt and taking a £35 million bonus may have helped this lot go under.