UK Homecare and Supported Living Market Surpasses £15 Billion
LaingBuisson has published the 7th edition of its respected Homecare and Supported Living UK Market Report. The report reveals the market is now worth over £15 billion a year and serves an estimated 915,000 adults in England alone.
An estimated 915,000 adults in England were in receipt of homecare or supported living services at the end of financial year 2024/25, representing 13 per 1,000 of the adult population. This is approximately double the proportion living in care homes (6.6 per 1,000).
Having partly recovered from the austerity-driven contraction of the 2010s, growth has been most pronounced in supported living for younger adults, driven by demographic change and a strong public preference to receive care at home. However, LaingBuisson concludes that this growth phase is set to slow over the coming decade with public funding constraints, persistent productivity shortfalls, and diminishing returns from the shift of younger adults out of residential care. This all points to a more challenging environment ahead.
Over 95% of homecare and supported living is now supplied by the independent sector, with local authorities having almost entirely withdrawn from direct provision. This shift is effectively irreversible given the prohibitive cost of any reversal for cash-strapped councils.
The market remains the most fragmented in UK health and social care, with the four largest operators controlling just 8.1% of addressable market value. This dispersal of providers is a consequence of councils’ reluctance to award volume contracts, which continues to sustain large numbers of low-overhead micro-providers operating on spot rates.
Report author, and Founder and Executive Chairman of LaingBuisson, William Laing, says:
“The homecare and supported living market has demonstrated real resilience, bouncing back from the austerity years to serve nearly one million adults in England. A figure that is roughly double the number living in care homes and a clear reflection of where people want to receive their care. Yet the sector faces structural headwinds. Public funding will not grow at the pace of recent years, and the fragmented supply side, shaped by councils’ reluctance to commit to volume contracts, makes it difficult for providers to achieve the scale needed to invest meaningfully in workforce and technology. The profitability data shows a wide spread of outcomes, and those who choose their operating localities carefully can make reasonable returns — but the model leaves little room for error.”
