Home care agencies,who is selling and what they fetch

In the last four quarters, 39 agencies were taken over by a buyer who registered them with CQC in its own name, and 372 companies running agencies were sold. A company sale counts once however many agencies the company runs. Numbered markers show events that changed the cost of running a home care agency, for context, not as a cause.

Almost every home care agency changes hands as a sale of the company, 94% in the last three years by our count. The CQC registration, the rating and most council contracts sit with the company, so a buyer who takes the shares keeps all three. A buyer who takes only the business has to register with CQC from scratch, which takes months and leaves the agency unrated. A few sales of the business alone at shared office addresses are hard to confirm, so the true share may be slightly lower.

1. 1Nov 2023 CQC starts its new single assessment framework, and inspections slow
2. 2Mar 2024 Overseas care workers can no longer bring dependants
3. 3Apr 2024 National Living Wage rises 9.8% to £11.44
4. 4Apr 2025 Employer National Insurance rises from 13.8% to 15%, and the National Living Wage to £12.21
5. 5Jul 2025 Recruitment of care workers from overseas closes
6. 6Apr 2026 National Living Wage rises to £12.71 and Statutory Sick Pay becomes payable from day one

Sources: the Care Quality Commission register of active and closed registrations, 1 September 2026 (businesses re-registered by a new owner); Companies House register of people with significant control, as at 1 October 2026 (sales of the company). Stone & Co analysis.

How the businesses are owned Estimate

A business here is the company, partnership or person registered with CQC to run the agencies. "Part of a larger group" means an investment fund, a listed company or no individual at the top of the ownership chain, or ten or more agencies under one owner. "Other" covers families or founders owning through several companies, businesses held in a trust, charities and not-for-profit companies, councils and the NHS, companies whose owners are not on the public register and a small number that fit none of these. Ownership as at 1 October 2026. Shares may not add to exactly 100% because of rounding.

Sources: Companies House register of people with significant control, as at 1 October 2026; Companies House company records (company type); the Care Quality Commission register of active and closed registrations, 1 September 2026. Stone & Co analysis.

Agencies by how long they have been registered

In our view, buyers pay less for an agency CQC has never inspected, because the rating is the first thing a lender and a council commissioner ask for.

Source: the Care Quality Commission register of active registrations, 1 September 2026. Years registered runs from each agency's registration date. Typical years registered and these bands cover the agencies actively providing care, leaving out 841 registrations marked dormant.

What councils pay for an hour of home care

Your region against other benchmarks

Each council's figure is what it told the Department of Health and Social Care it pays for an hour of home care in 2025-26, published August 2025. Region and England figures are the simple average of the councils in each, so every council counts equally whatever its size. Rates run from £18.45 an hour in Harrow to £31.82 in Hertfordshire, and no council's average rate reached the Homecare Association's 2025-26 minimum price of £32.14 an hour.

Sources: Department of Health and Social Care, Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund provider fee returns 2025-26, contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; other benchmarks as named in the table.

In the last four quarters 998 new agencies registered and 1,025 closed, a net loss of 27. Registrations that closed and reopened because the business changed owner are left out. Groups moving five or more services onto a new registration at once are left out too. Estimate

1. 1Nov 2023 CQC starts its new single assessment framework, and inspections slow
2. 2Mar 2024 Overseas care workers can no longer bring dependants
3. 3Apr 2024 National Living Wage rises 9.8% to £11.44
4. 4Apr 2025 Employer National Insurance rises from 13.8% to 15%, and the National Living Wage to £12.21
5. 5Jul 2025 Recruitment of care workers from overseas closes
6. 6Apr 2026 National Living Wage rises to £12.71 and Statutory Sick Pay becomes payable from day one

Source: the Care Quality Commission register of active and closed registrations, 1 September 2026. Registrations that closed and reopened because the business changed owner are left out, as are batches of five or more re-registrations by one provider in a quarter, which are paperwork rather than real openings or closures.

Every region side by side Estimate

The England row counts every home care agency and every change of owner, including 50 registrations and 88 changes of owner that cannot be placed in a region (mostly companies sold that no longer run a registered service), so the regions add up to slightly less than England.

Sources: the Care Quality Commission register of active and closed registrations, 1 September 2026 (services registered, by CQC region); Companies House register of people with significant control, as at 1 October 2026 (changes of owner); Department of Health and Social Care provider fee returns 2025-26, Open Government Licence v3.0 (council rates, simple average of the councils in each region). Stone & Co analysis.