The idea was a simple one to convert the first floors of a group of local authority buildings for use as nursing homes and upgrade the ground floors for residential care. The NHS Trust was to fund all the capital work in return for acquiring additional nursing care beds at a fraction of the cost of a new build and the council to get their facilities upgraded at no cost to them. So it was a case of ‘win ,win’.

The only problem was the work had to be completed within the current financial year, the funds would not be available after that.