Scotland's largest local authority could withdraw from providing care homes for the elderly if strike action by hundreds of residential workers goes ahead.

Scotland's largest local authority could withdraw from providing care homes for the elderly if strike action by hundreds of residential workers goes ahead.

Glasgow City Council has claimed "there can be no guarantee" that residents moved out of the authority's care as part of the industrial action contingency plans would return, effectively signalling the beginning of the end of its role in the sector.

In a letter to all 840 members of the Unison branch which has voted for the action, service director of social work David Crawford warned the council's plans to replace the existing 16 care homes with five new purpose-built facilities was also in jeopardy.

Mr Crawford said the £75m required for the programme would only be affordable if it introduced "more efficient working practices, including changes to staff rotas" and that Unison's demands would scupper this.

However, the move has been branded by union leaders as an attempt to intimidate staff by threatening them with their jobs, while doubts have been raised as to whether the private and voluntary care home sector in Greater Glasgow has the capacity for around 700 places at short notice.

In the letter, which members will receive today, Mr Crawford said: "If there is a strike we will be forced to move residents to other care providers.

"Having moved residents out of the council's care, there can be no guarantee they will return."

A senior council source added: "There is a very real possibility this will see the council pull out of the care homes business altogether."

Mike Kirby, Unison's Glasgow organiser, said the council was heightening tensions before the union's meeting tomorrow.

He added: "It's disappointing the council is using threatening language when outside reports have questioned the standards of care from some private homes."

The union is demanding all residential workers move up one point in the scale and that only a ballot with 96% supporting action has brought the issue to a head, after two years in the background. There has also been a demand to move staff in residential homes for older people up two grades.

The council claims it already pays its residential workers more than the private sector and more than any other local authority in Scotland.

Last night Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care, the umbrella body for private and voluntary care homes, said that while there were on average 2000 spare beds in Scotland for older people it was unlikely 700 could be found in Greater Glasgow.