About 5,000 residential care homes risk closure because they carry too much debt and don’t make enough profit to cover loan repayments. Research by business risk analysts found that individual care homes were borrowing 61% of the value of the business - £4bn across the industry. There are 20,000 homes in the UK, operated by 5,871 owners who make about £60,000 profit as operators. Opus Business Services said the figures make investment difficult and leave a very small pot to encourage people to stay in this market, run homes and invest in them to create ‘the extra capacity that we all know this market is going to need as the baby boomers get old and need to go into care’. There is concern that future investors will want big and quick returns on their investments, and the profitability of care homes has been hit by rising costs like the new national living wage of £7.20 per hour.