Care home hope

Southern Cross, the embattled national care home company with five developments in the Rochdale borough, hopes to restructure its finances this summer.

The firm, which owns Oakland on Bury Road, Heywood Court in Heywood and Hulton Care, Langfield and Middleton Hall in Middleton, is Britain’s largest care home operator with some 31,000 clients.

But its share price has tumbled as it hopes landlords will agree to defer 30 per cent of rent payments until September 30.

This is designed to create a so-called “summer platform” while it restructures the company’s affairs.

The firm hopes its major customers — local authorities and the Department of Health — will agree.

Christopher Fisher, chairman of Southern Cross, said: “We believe all of the key stakeholders in Southern Cross want this restructuring to succeed. We are in dialogue with the Department of Health, our lenders and landlords and they continue to support the process.

“It is in everyone’s interests if this is part of a larger, managed and orderly process.

“The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents.”