Southern Cross Healthcare

EDM number 1863 in 2010-12, proposed by Roger Godsiff on 07/06/2011.
Categorised under the topic of Elderly people.

That this House expresses its great concern at the assertions being made by Southern Cross that unless the company's landlords reduce the legally-agreed rents being charged by them then the company willgo bust, thereby putting its 31,000 frail and elderly residents in 753 homes at risk; notes that four directors of the company sold their entire stakes in the company in December 2007 at 550 pence a share and that those shares are now valued atseven pence; further notes that Baroness Morgan of Huyton, who served as Tony Blair's political secretary, is one of the longest serving board members at Southern Cross, sits on the company's remuneration committee which determines the pay of senior executives and directors and received 53,000 from the company last year; further notes that Jeremy Heywood, who was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office in 2008, was co-head of UK investment banking at Morgan Stanley which acted as financial adviser and lead manager for the 2006 flotation, which yielded a 300 per cent. return on its investment in Southern Cross for its private equity group owner Blackstone and its directors a year before the share value collapsed; acknowledges the worry and distress being caused to Southern Cross residents including those living in the Oaklands home in Moseley; and strongly believes that elderly people who need residential care should be helped to live out their lives with care, support and dignity rather than having their futures determined by the avaricious greed of financial entrepreneurs and their apologists, who view care for the elderly as just another commodity and market opportunity to make vast sums of money.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.