STANSTED'S Hargrave House Nursing Home will close on Monday leaving up to 50 elderly residents homeless.

Directors dropped the bombshell to staff at the Cambridge Road home recently.

Essex County Council social services are now frantically searching for nursing home places for the 38 residents.

However, most nursing homes contacted have been reluctant to take them because they prefer private patients or social services clients with third party top-ups.

Hargrave House manager Clive Ansell-Jones said news of the closure, received in a call from the home's owner Somerford Homes Ltd, came as a great shock.

'The initial reaction of staff was not for themselves but for the welfare of the residents. It's a very stressful time and we're being as supportive as we can,' he said.

'It's also a very anxious time for relatives. Social services are looking to place residents in other homes.'

Somerford Homes operations director Paul Duhig said the London-based company, which operates ten homes throughout the UK including two in Essex, reluctantly took the decision because of rising costs.

'It's never really made any money in the five years we've operated it. We predominantly took Essex County Council social services clients, but social services haven't recognised the rising cost of providing the care.'

He said the £272 (or £39 a day) which social services paid for each client referred, did not cover costs such as 24-hour care. The high cost of living in Stansted was also a factor in the home's closure.

Mr Duhig said Somerford was left with an 'unequal equation' on its balance sheets after social services demanded more care staff for the same money.

'We don't have a problem with providing more carers but we have to be paid for it,' Mr Duhig said.

The home's quick closure will mean service standards won't be allowed to deteriorate over a prolonged winding-up period.

Sixty staff could be made redundant in the closure, although some may be offered jobs at Somerford's Larchwood Care Home in Braintree. Other care homes have also expressed interest in taking on some of the staff.

Hargrave House has been registered to operate solely as a residential care home since 1999, prior to which it was registered as a nursing and residential care home.