COUNTY council leaders have moved to squash suggestions they are considering offering elderly people places in care homes abroad because they are cheaper.

The about-turn comes just one week after Kent County Council’s social services director Peter Gilroy said he was looking at the option of sending elderly and infirm people to residential care homes in France and Belgium.

In a rebuff for the director, county council Conservative leader Cllr Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said there was “no question” of compelling anyone to take up a place in a home abroad.

Cllr Bruce-Lockhart said that while Kent was anxious to consider ways in which it could cut the increasing costs of residential care, the authority would not countenance any scheme in which people would be forced out of the country.

He added: "We did ask officers to look at how we could resolve these issues and what solutions there might be. Our instruction was to think of any possible solution. But there is absolutely no question of any elected member ever agreeing to send people abroad.”

He stressed that the difficulties Kent faced stemmed from a shortfall in Government funding and the authority’s inability to compete with other councils, principally in London, who could afford to pay more for care.

One other option may be for KCC to link up with health authorities to fund more specialist care homes, he stressed.

The controversy was sparked when Mr Gilroy said in an interview that if the facilities and standards in European homes were acceptable, Kent would consider the option.

“France and Belgium are nearer to Kent than Devon so we view them rather like adjoining countries. But nobody will be forced to go abroad and initial feedback from carers has been very positive.”

Opposition Labour leader Cllr Mike Eddy said: “There are so many unanswered questions that have made this move appear very premature and ill-thought out.”