FAMILIES with loved ones in a Bradford care home have been told they have less than a year to find new accommodation.

Yorkshire Housing Association has broken the news that it plans to close its only residential care home in the city by March next year.

The association's care and support manager Sean McKibben spoke to residents and their families at a special meeting called last week at Emily Court, off Southfield Lane in Little Horton.

The Telegraph & Argus was contacted by a concerned relative who said the Association was blaming council cuts and the fact it now only had 13 residents when its capacity was for 35.

The home specialises in dementia care and charges residents between £360 and £396 per week. When it was last inspected by the Care Quality Commission in June last year it met all required standards with no action needed.

The care service at Emily Court had been operating for many years but was registered as a new service in 2012 when it was taken over by Yorkshire Housing Ltd.

A Yorkshire Housing spokesman said: “Yorkshire Housing started a review of Emily Court 18 months ago because we couldn’t fill all of the rooms due to a low number of referrals, and it was making a significant loss which we couldn’t sustain.

"We made the difficult decision to close the home because we are not confident that we will be able to fill the beds or secure the funding required to continue to provide the level of care needed. We recognise the pressures on council funding for these types of services."

And he added: "The age and design of the building makes it difficult to offer modern care to older people with high needs. When Emily Court opened in 1991 it was designed for people with lower care needs. Now most people referred to residential care homes have much higher support needs than the building was originally designed for.”

Labour ward councillor Sher Khan said he was sad to hear the home was shutting and added: "I feel for the relatives and the families who will be affected. The cuts are so much that we have to make savings. It is disappointing the closure will happen and we will lose a facility specialising in dementia which is such a growing problem."

In a move to save £300,000, Bradford Council shut Harbourne Residential Care Home in Wibsey last year which had offered residential care for older people with dementia and a day centre run by Bradford District Care Trust.