The ten largest care home operators run nearly one bed in five

Commissioning and markets · Market shape

Care home beds in England run by the ten largest operators · October 2026

Note: Counted under the operator that runs each home; a home registered twice is counted once. Do not add the bars up across groups: Welltower owns the buildings of many homes run by Care UK, Barchester and Avery, which count under those operators. The Welltower bar is the homes CQC registers under its Welltower brand: HC-One (7,474 beds; Welltower is reported to own HC-One), Ideal Carehomes and Welltower's own operating companies.

Source: CQC register of care services, Baton calculation (opens in a new tab) Published 23 October 2026

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OperatorCare home beds in England run by the ten largest operators (beds)
Care UK16328
Barchester Healthcare14945
Welltower (HC-One and others)14011
Avery8332
BUPA Group7136
Anchor6424
Sanctuary Care4859
Runwood4637
Maria Mallaband Care Group4002
Methodist Homes3701
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Commissioning and markets · Market shape

Welltower owns the buildings of homes run by four of the largest care operators

UK properties Welltower owns, by the operator that runs them, 30 June 2026 · 30 June 2026

Note: Welltower's own count at 30 June 2026: UK-wide and all property types, including leased homes, so not comparable with care home beds in England. Welltower owns the buildings; the operators run the homes. 54 of its 795 UK properties are run by other operators.

Source: Welltower, second-quarter 2026 supplement (PDF) (opens in a new tab) Published 23 October 2026

Regulation and quality · Ratings

Care homes in the North East are the most likely to be rated good or outstanding

Share of rated care homes rated good or outstanding, by region · October 2026

Note: CQC's current overall rating, which for some homes is several years old.

Source: CQC register of care services, Baton calculation (opens in a new tab) Published 21 October 2026

Commissioning and markets · Care home places

Councils run just 2% of England's care home beds

Share of care home beds in England, by who runs the home · October 2026

Note: Councils include the companies they own, as far as we have identified them (known data issue DI-003). A home registered twice is counted once.

Source: CQC register of care services, Baton calculation (opens in a new tab) Published 21 October 2026

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