A new report showing that 75 per cent of identified adult care home places in Wales are run by for-profit providers, and that the only significant growth in supply of care home places is coming from private investment firms, should be a wake-up call for politicians and council leaders, say TUC Cymru and UNISON.

The evidence shows that workers in privately operated care homes are usually paid less, care quality suffers and profit is extracted from public money to benefit owners and investors in offshore jurisdictions.

The report from TUC Cymru and the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), titled “People in Cymru expect better for their communities,” examines the ownership of adult care home services across Wales. It found that across Wales, for-profit providers now supply 75 per cent of identified adult care home places. Investment firm-owned providers supply 17 of places, a larger share than local government.

TUC Cymru and UNISON say the figures show too much public money meant for care is being taken out of the system by private companies and investors, instead of being spent on care workers, residents, and better services.

Private providers in Cymru are no longer predominately smaller homes, rooted in the local community. Instead, big global players have become increasingly involved. The only significant growth in supply of care home places between 2020 and 2025 came from global investment firms. This trend will only increase in future without intervention, the report says.

In 2025, Ceredigion had 289 identified care places. Just 18 per cent of those were identified as being run by the county, 5 per cent were identified as run by not-for-profits, with the remainder run by for-profit or investment concerns.

During the same year, Gwynedd had 702 places, with 48 per cent run by the council and just 1 per cent by non-profit groups.

In Carmarthenshire, the county ran 18 per cent of the 1,487 care home spaces in 2025, with 74 per cent being run on a for-profit basis,

Powys has 945 spaces in 2025 and had none run directly by the council and an 8 per cent participation rate by non-profits.

In the same year in Pembrokeshire, 342 spaces were identified, with the council and non-profits running just 21 per cent of the spaces.

“People in Cymru expect better for their communities,” the report says. “Removing the profit motive would ensure public money goes solely for public benefit. Without a change in direction, care quality may continue to suffer while getting ever more expensive for all of us.”

It notes care workers are going to be under ever greater pressure, preventing them from delivering the quality of care they want to deliver and making them even more vulnerable to exploitation. For government, the cost to bring care back into public and non-profit ownership would be short term, and lower than the long term cost of continuing to allow money to be siphoned out of the system into the pockets of the rich.

It says care homes need to be embedded in our communities as a vital part of a healthy society. They should never be vehicles for shifting profits from publicly funded services into offshore bank accounts.

The report warns that care quality can suffer where services are driven by profit, and that staff in privately run care homes are often under greater pressure. Care workers, including care assistants, support workers and domestic staff, are already dealing with low pay, high workloads, and rising demand.

The report also finds that between 2020 and 2025 there has been a 34 per cent fall in not-for-profit provision, meanwhile not-for-profit providers have shrunk from 16 per cent to 10.9 per cent of provision in the same period.

The largest thirty care home providers across Wales control 35 per cent of all places. Three-quarters of these places are from for-profit companies. Investments firms, typically owned by private equity, supply 22 per cent of the top thirty’s supply. Compare this to Local Government supply, which makes up only 15 per cent of the top thirty’s supply. This means that investment firms own more of our social care than local government.

Between 2020 and 2025, the proportion of places supplied by for-profit providers has gone up from 70 per cent to 75 per cent.

Within this group, investment firm-owned providers supplied 15.5 per cent of places in 2020 and this has gone up to 17.4 per cent by 2025, an 8 per cent (188) increase in the number of places supplied. Without intervention, this trend of investment firm owned care home companies is likely to increase further as it has in the broader UK market and globally.

Local government’s proportion of places has stayed static increasing slightly from 14 per cent (2020) to 14.4 per cent in 2025.

Not for profits have shrunk going from supplying 16 per cent in 2020 to 10.9 per cent in 2025, a fall of 887 places.

TUC Cymru and UNISON are calling on the Welsh government to extend its commitment to remove profit from children’s care to all forms of social care, including adult care homes. The union says councils should also be given greater support to provide care directly, with stronger transparency over who owns care companies and care home properties.

For this trend to change, there must be interventions, these are the lessons learned from other parts of the UK and globally.

Amber Courtney, Head of Policy, TUC Cymru said: “Private Social Care providers in Cymru are no longer predominantly smaller homes rooted in the community. Instead, big global players have become increasingly involved.

“There is now strong evidence that workers in privately operated care homes are often paid less, care quality suffers, and profit is extracted from public money to benefit owners and offshore investors.

“Removing profit would mean public money is invested solely for public benefit. Without a change, social care is going to get ever more expensive for us all.”

Jess Turner, UNISON Cymru Secretary said: “This report highlights once again that that the adult social care system in Cymru is heading in the wrong direction.

“Care workers are calling on the new Welsh Government to take the opportunity to complete the job of removing profit from all care.

“Public services should be delivered for the public benefit, by well-paid workers working in the public interest.”

Vivek Kotecha, report author said: ‘CICTAR has carried out research into private care companies across the UK and around the globe and the trends are very clear. When care is treated as an opportunity to make money it is care workers, and our loved ones that they care for, that suffer while others become rich.

“With the only significant growth in the supply of care home places in Wales over the last five years coming from global investment firms, the government urgently needs to change the direction of travel before it is too late.’