Real estate company JLL has called for more care homes beds to be delivered across Scotland.

New research by the firm revealed across the UK, there will be a shortfall of nearly 3,000 care home beds in 2018, based on the current development pipeline and anticipated increase in demand.

In Scotland, figures suggest an extra 10,800 beds will be needed by 2026, while the planned development pipeline for 2018 will see 700 beds delivered.

Eamonn Meadows, Associate Director in JLL's Healthcare team, said a "change of mindset" is required that sees the development of care homes as an "imperative for society", with applications being resolved "in a timely manner and without the frustrations that many operators report".

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"Attendant to reforms contained in the green paper should perhaps be protection or classification of land allocated to retirement living developments to ensure that the right type of housing is being built in the right locations," he said. This would enable people to extend the period of independent living."

James Kingdom, Head of Research for JLL's Alternatives team, added: "Even before we take into account the impact of bed closures, the care home sector needs to double the delivery of new beds. Demand for private pay stock set to increase across all regions of the UK, not just the wealthy prime markets, as a result of historic house price growth and no change in the threshold for publically funded care since 2010.

"It is essential that the government reaches a sustainable solution as to how social care is to be funded in a way that doesn't pass the burden to a shrinking working age population."

(LM/MH)