Cost statistics · Q4 2026 (October to December)

Care home costs in England 2026

A care home in England costs a typical £1,520 a week (about £79,000 a year) for a self-funder in Q4 2026 (October to December). Residential care is typically £1,450 a week and nursing care £1,690 a week: nursing costs about £240 more.

Published 20 October 2026 · Covers 14,796 CQC-registered care homes · How we worked this out · Download the data (CSV)

Key figures

Typical weekly fee: A care home in England costs a typical £1,520 a week (about £79,000 a year) for a self-funder in Q4 2026 (October to December).
Residential vs nursing: Residential care is typically £1,450 a week and nursing care £1,690 a week: nursing costs about £240 more.
Dementia care: Dementia care adds roughly £65 a week to residential fees and £30 to nursing fees.
Most and least expensive regions: London is the most expensive region at £1,670 a week; North East the least at £1,230 a week.
Quality: 82.6% of care homes in England with a CQC rating are rated Good or Outstanding.

Cite this: The Care Panel, "Care home costs in England 2026", Q4 2026 (October to December), https://thecarepanel.co.uk/care-home-costs-england/. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.

Care home fees by type of care

Type of care	Typical weekly fee	A year (52 weeks)
Residential care	£1,400	£72,800
Nursing care	£1,640	£85,300
Residential dementia care	£1,465	£76,200
Nursing dementia care	£1,670	£86,800

England benchmarks for self-funders. Homes with nursing must have a registered nurse on duty at all times; dementia care needs more staff time.

Care home fees by region

Region	Typical fee a week	Residential	Nursing	Good or Outstanding	Care homes
London	£1,670	£1,620	£1,870	89.5%	1,274
South East	£1,620	£1,560	£1,850	82%	2,829
South West	£1,530	£1,450	£1,690	88.9%	1,852
East of England	£1,500	£1,500	£1,690	79.2%	1,632
West Midlands	£1,340	£1,300	£1,540	77.8%	1,691
East Midlands	£1,290	£1,250	£1,540	79.5%	1,444
Yorkshire and the Humber	£1,270	£1,270	£1,560	80.6%	1,472
North West	£1,260	£1,260	£1,580	79.5%	1,872
North East	£1,230	£1,230	£1,370	91.9%	730
England	£1,520	£1,450	£1,690	82.6%	14,796

Care home fees by council area

151 council areas, most expensive first. Select a council for local prices, how to get help and the highest rated care homes.

Council	Typical a week	Good or Outstanding	Care homes
Hammersmith and Fulham	£1,870	87.5%	10
Westminster	£1,870	100%	9
Oxfordshire	£1,850	87.4%	149
Windsor and Maidenhead	£1,830	71.8%	43
Islington	£1,810	100%	18
Kingston upon Thames	£1,810	89.5%	44
Kensington and Chelsea	£1,770	90%	11
Wandsworth	£1,760	92.3%	26
Barnet	£1,670	86.8%	80
Bexley	£1,670	75.9%	31
Bromley	£1,670	93.3%	52
Camden	£1,670	90.9%	11
Ealing	£1,670	85.7%	35
Harrow	£1,670	93.9%	52
Havering	£1,670	92.3%	60
Hillingdon	£1,670	90.7%	48
Merton	£1,670	100%	35
Richmond upon Thames	£1,670	95%	42
Southwark	£1,670	76.9%	13
Tower Hamlets	£1,670	90%	10
Barking and Dagenham	£1,640	95.2%	22
Bracknell Forest	£1,620	73.3%	19
Brent	£1,620	86.7%	47
Buckinghamshire	£1,620	74.2%	135
Croydon	£1,620	90.1%	128
East Sussex	£1,620	84.4%	295
Enfield	£1,620	82.7%	82
Greenwich	£1,620	82.5%	42
Hackney	£1,620	83.3%	12
Hampshire	£1,620	84.9%	483
Haringey	£1,620	87.5%	24
Hounslow	£1,620	89.7%	32
Isle of Wight	£1,620	72.9%	61
Kent	£1,620	79.1%	502
Lambeth	£1,620	75.8%	35
Lewisham	£1,620	95.7%	49
Medway	£1,620	70%	66
Milton Keynes	£1,620	84.1%	49
Newham	£1,620	90.5%	23
Portsmouth	£1,620	73.3%	30
Redbridge	£1,620	85.9%	77
Southampton	£1,620	83.3%	51
Surrey	£1,620	81.4%	381
Sutton	£1,620	95.4%	68
Waltham Forest	£1,620	95.3%	46
West Sussex	£1,620	84.3%	342
Wokingham	£1,620	93%	45
Reading	£1,590	75.9%	32
Slough	£1,590	57.1%	16
Brighton and Hove	£1,560	91.7%	86
West Berkshire	£1,560	89.7%	44
Bath and North East Somerset	£1,530	84.3%	55
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	£1,530	96.1%	134
Bristol, City of	£1,530	97.7%	92
Cornwall	£1,530	81.4%	199
Devon	£1,530	90%	309
Dorset	£1,530	94.4%	119
Gloucestershire	£1,530	85.8%	199
North Somerset	£1,530	96.6%	94
Plymouth	£1,530	78.8%	87
Somerset	£1,530	89.2%	197
South Gloucestershire	£1,530	96.1%	81
Swindon	£1,530	88.9%	47
Torbay	£1,530	80%	74
Wiltshire	£1,530	89.1%	163
Cheshire West and Chester	£1,520	74.3%	85
Cheshire East	£1,510	77.3%	106
Wigan	£1,510	92.5%	59
Bedford	£1,500	77.1%	73
Cambridgeshire	£1,500	92.8%	139
Central Bedfordshire	£1,500	75%	62
Essex	£1,500	83.7%	404
Hertfordshire	£1,500	76.5%	256
Luton	£1,500	72.7%	35
Norfolk	£1,500	66%	319
Peterborough	£1,500	87.9%	37
Southend-on-Sea	£1,500	92.2%	84
Suffolk	£1,500	80.2%	196
Thurrock	£1,480	92%	26
Coventry	£1,340	66.7%	72
Dudley	£1,340	70.2%	92
Herefordshire, County of	£1,340	84.1%	86
Shropshire	£1,340	79.8%	117
Solihull	£1,340	88.3%	63
Staffordshire	£1,340	77.8%	271
Stoke-on-Trent	£1,340	80.5%	84
Telford and Wrekin	£1,340	78.8%	37
Walsall	£1,340	68.4%	71
Warwickshire	£1,340	80.5%	172
Wolverhampton	£1,340	66.2%	74
Worcestershire	£1,340	86.1%	174
Newcastle upon Tyne	£1,310	90.6%	74
Birmingham	£1,300	76.6%	283
Sandwell	£1,300	73.4%	94
Derby	£1,290	75.8%	71
Derbyshire	£1,290	81%	240
Leicester	£1,290	80.6%	103
Leicestershire	£1,290	81.5%	164
Lincolnshire	£1,290	76.7%	284
North Northamptonshire	£1,290	81.7%	109
Nottingham	£1,290	76.4%	77
Nottinghamshire	£1,290	84.4%	280
Rutland	£1,290	81.8%	11
West Northamptonshire	£1,290	68.4%	105
Barnsley	£1,270	81.8%	70
Bradford	£1,270	76%	109
Calderdale	£1,270	78.6%	46
Doncaster	£1,270	81.3%	80
East Riding of Yorkshire	£1,270	77.6%	150
Kingston upon Hull, City of	£1,270	72.9%	78
Kirklees	£1,270	78.9%	127
Leeds	£1,270	78.2%	160
North East Lincolnshire	£1,270	86%	55
North Lincolnshire	£1,270	80.4%	59
North Yorkshire	£1,270	85.6%	202
Rotherham	£1,270	88.6%	84
Sheffield	£1,270	85%	114
Wakefield	£1,270	73.9%	96
York	£1,270	85.7%	42
Blackburn with Darwen	£1,260	80.6%	34
Blackpool	£1,260	77.8%	68
Bolton	£1,260	83.6%	57
Bury	£1,260	86%	52
Cumberland	£1,260	79.5%	78
Halton	£1,260	75%	25
Knowsley	£1,260	78.3%	27
Lancashire	£1,260	82.5%	423
Liverpool	£1,260	67.5%	88
Manchester	£1,260	82.9%	83
Oldham	£1,260	85.4%	45
Rochdale	£1,260	64.8%	61
Salford	£1,260	80%	43
Sefton	£1,260	79.4%	111
St. Helens	£1,260	89.2%	41
Stockport	£1,260	72.1%	67
Tameside	£1,260	71.4%	35
Trafford	£1,260	86.3%	56
Warrington	£1,260	81.1%	56
Westmorland and Furness	£1,260	89.1%	59
Wirral	£1,260	70.2%	112
County Durham	£1,230	92.8%	143
Darlington	£1,230	86.2%	32
Gateshead	£1,230	97.9%	49
Hartlepool	£1,230	92.6%	27
Middlesbrough	£1,230	95.3%	48
North Tyneside	£1,230	90.2%	43
Northumberland	£1,230	90.3%	94
Redcar and Cleveland	£1,230	85%	42
South Tyneside	£1,230	93.5%	34
Stockton-on-Tees	£1,230	91.8%	57
Sunderland	£1,230	93.1%	87

Who pays, and help you may be missing

Anyone can ask their council for a free care needs assessment. In England, people with savings over £23,250 usually pay in full; below that the council helps after a financial assessment. Two sources of help are often missed:

Attendance Allowance: £76.70 or £114.60 a week, not means-tested, for people over State Pension age who need help with personal care. Check eligibility.
NHS Continuing Healthcare: the NHS pays the full cost of care for people whose main need is a health need. Check whether to ask for an assessment.

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How we worked this out

What the figures are. Typical prices a self-funder would pay, not quotes. Each is the median of a modelled fee for every active care home on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) register in England (14,796 services).
The model. It starts from published regional self-funder benchmarks for each type of care, adjusts for the care type each service is registered with CQC to provide (residential, nursing, dementia), and for operators whose published prices sit well above or below their area.
Provider-reported fees. Where a provider has told us its fees, they replace the model (0 services this edition).
Benchmarks used. carehome.co.uk regional fees (data Sep 2025); Lottie regional fees 2026; Lottie Care Index, care homes, Q2–Q3 2026; Lottie Care Index, home care, Q3 2026; Homecare Association minimum price 2026/27 (London Living Wage version), via Right at Home; Operators' published "from" prices on Lottie operator pages and branch price lists.
Quality. Ratings are each service's latest overall CQC rating. Data as of 19 October 2026.
Updates. A new edition is published each quarter with the England Care Fees and Quality Index. Fee model version 2026.4.
Limits. Prices vary between homes and agencies in the same area, and with the level of need. Use these figures to compare areas and plan; ask providers for written prices.

Cite this: The Care Panel, "Care home costs in England 2026", Q4 2026 (October to December), https://thecarepanel.co.uk/care-home-costs-england/. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. CSV download.

Questions

How much does a care home cost per week in England?

A typical £1,520 a week in Q4 2026 (October to December): about £1,450 for residential care and £1,690 for nursing care. Homes in London and the South East cost more; the North East and North West cost least.

How much does a care home cost per year?

At a typical £1,520 a week, a year in a care home costs about £79,000. Fees usually rise each April.

Why is nursing care more expensive?

A nursing home must have a registered nurse on duty day and night. If someone in a nursing home is assessed as needing nursing care, the NHS pays the nursing part directly to the home (NHS-funded nursing care), whoever pays the rest.

Who pays for care in England?

Anyone can ask the council for a free care needs assessment. If savings and investments are over £23,250 you usually pay the full cost. Between £14,250 and £23,250 you contribute from savings and income; under £14,250 only from income. For a care home, the value of the home counts unless a partner or certain relatives still live there. Attendance Allowance is not means-tested, and people with a primary health need may get NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Are these figures quotes?

No. They are typical modelled self-funder prices, built from published regional benchmarks and adjusted for the type of care and the operator, so areas can be compared. Where a provider has told us its fees, we use those. Always ask providers for a written price list.

Can I use these figures?

Yes, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Please cite: The Care Panel, Care home costs in England, Q4 2026 (October to December), with a link to this page.

Questions people ask

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Source for provider details: CQC, Oct 2026 (Open Government Licence v3.0). The Care Panel is a comparison site, not a care company.