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Care homes for the elderly and disabled are closing at the rate of more than one a day.

Meagre funding by local authorities after seven years of Tory cuts has meant disruption for thousands as residents are forced to move.

In the last 12 months, 2,200 residential places have vanished across England alone.

Age UK’s Caroline Abrahams said: “If people have to move abruptly from the place they know as home it will obviously cause huge distress – and could also seriously undermine their health.”

She said a growing number of homes no longer take local authority clients, claiming the payments are too small.

She added: “It’s becoming extremely difficult in many areas to find a good, stable place unless they or their family are seriously well off.”

(Image: PA)

The Care Quality Commission says the number of residential and nursing homes in England is down by 373 since April last year, to 16,392.

They warned: “Our data shows the services closing are more likely to be smaller services, which have to date achieved better CQC ratings.”

Ingrid Koehler, of research think tank the Local Government Information Unit, added: “We know people die when providers fail and residents have to be removed.”

A Tory spokesman said nearly three quarters of care homes are “good or better” and “crucially the number of beds in those homes has remained stable.”

Barbara Keeley, Labour’s shadow minister for social care, said: “People are being left stranded on wards. Under Theresa May, a million older people aren’t getting the care they need.”