Ed Davey Published August 26 2026 Jump to comments section Print this page Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is leader of the Liberal Democrats and author of ‘Why I Care and Why Care Matters’A few weeks ago on holiday my phone buzzed. I’m pretty sure a lot of FT readers know that feeling: your partner giving you the look, fearing that it’s the dreaded work call.

But this was my chance to speak to the new prime minister about social care — I was not about to miss it. Social care is one of many longstanding problems that never get fixed, leading some commentators and politicians to argue that Britain is broken. So as a longtime proponent of cross-party working on this issue — partly based on my own experience caring for my mum, my Nanna and my son — of course I took the call.

Too many people think we can’t afford to reform social care. I argue we can’t afford not to. The stats show that 1 in 7 elderly people will spend at least £100,000 on their care — with recent analysis by my team suggesting family-paid care costs have risen by 60 per cent, nearly £2bn, in just five years.

The human costs are known — elderly and disabled people left bedbound without support, families losing everything on care home fees. But the economic and public finance costs of not fixing care are either ignored or dismissed — as are the opportunities. It’s partly because people rarely think about the impact on family carers looking after loved ones at home.

The thousands who give up their jobs every day to look after their mum or dad, who slash their working hours or can’t grow their business. With no guarantee of respite care, carers being unable to get paid time off work, government rules even penalising those who try to juggle work and care (earning just a few pence above the earnings threshold means your entire carer’s allowance is removed), our economy loses out: we have less growth and reduced tax revenues. I know from my own experience that many family carers want to do the caring for their loved one.

And for the public finances, it makes sense. The cost of helping a family at home is infinitesimal compared to a hospital or care home bed — and delivers a much better quality of life. The current system is not only cruel, it’s unbelievably wasteful.

We hear constantly about the need to make the NHS more productive and efficient — care reform is the way to do it. Almost 900,000 people had their requests for care denied in 2024-25. The result is a vast burden on the health service: 13,000 people per day are medically fit to leave hospital but can’t because they don’t have support.

It’s madness. Then, there’s the need to think more intelligently about the costs individuals face — the damage to people’s finances. The behavioural impact on consumer spending is under-explored but, I suspect, profound.

It must massively distort the decisions of both the elderly and their families. A cap on care costs so that people can plan properly and responsibly would tackle such damping effects. I suspect the most successful future economies will be those that face up best to the global phenomena of ageing populations.

The UK has started to reform pensions. We’ve not started on serious care reforms. Yet they might prove as important to economic growth as policy on AI or climate change.

I have a host of ideas. But if cross-party working is to be genuine, I won’t let the best be the enemy of the good. There have been 22 failed attempts at reform since 1997.

I’ve told Andy Burnham, and I’ll say it here too: I will do everything in my power to help make reform lasting and meaningful. If the Conservatives and Labour agree on a way forward, Liberal Democrats will back it — even if it’s not our preference. The stakes are far too high to do otherwise.

For my family and for millions of us, this time we have to get it right.