One of Scotland's leading care home operators has claimed councils are wasting millions of pounds on in-house care, while underfunding care for vulnerable elderly residents in private homes.

Robert Kilgour, chairman of Renaissance Care, sought information from councils under freedom of information rules about the amount they spend on homes they run themselves.

He said the figures proved many local authorities are asking private providers to operate on far lower funding than their own services, confirming longstanding complaints from the sector about an unequal playing field.

The figures also show that councils charge more for private residents who pay their own fees in their own homes than they pay the private sector, leading to accusations councils are using these fee-payers to subsidise their care home costs.

Mr Kilgour called on the Accounts Commission, the public spending watchdog for local government in Scotland, to carry out an investigation into how much local councils spend on their care homes.

He said: “Local councils need to address growing inequalities in funding between local authority and independent homes. What is taking place is a blatant misuse of public money, with tens of millions of pounds wasted every year.”

The freedom of information requests to all 32 local authorities have provided a detailed breakdown of their care home operations, including the costs of land and building purchases, the total weekly costs charged to residents, the average salaries of managers, and other senior staff.

Mr Kilgour said the answers showed local councils were not being realistic and honest in recognising the true costs of care.

Under a national agreement, councils pay care homes £594 a week for residential care and £690 for full nursing care. But the FOI responses show the costs to many councils of their own care home provision is in excess of £1000 a week. Examples where this is the case include East Lothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire and Shetland.

In North Ayrshire, figures range as high as £1,767 per week, South Lanarkshire spends up to £1,572 , and Perth and Kinross up to £1825 weekly.

While the average independent sector home costs around £90,000 per bed to build after land costs, Mr Kilgour said figures showed several councils were spending up to twice as much on their own building schemes. "Why should certain local authorities get away with spending lots more of taxpayers’ money building their own care homes?" he added. “I personally know of two that have been valued by professional surveyors at a lot less – millions of pounds less - than they cost the two councils to build. Many more will see the same waste of money.

He added: “Despite clear underfunding there is nevertheless a high level of quality in the independent sector, but if properly funded the quality would be even greater.

Independent care home companies are having to pay the Scottish Carers Living Wage, which I’m happy to do as care workers fully deserve it, but they are expected to do this with substantially lower funding than Council care homes.

“They also face uncertainty over Brexit which could result in loss of experienced EU-born staff. At the same time, they are expected to continue to invest in improved facilities. It’s simply not sustainable."

Mr Kilgour said the information he had gathered would be published on line as a contribution to the debate over the cost of elderly care.

Scottish Care Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill welcomed Mr Kilgour’s initiative.

He said: “For some time now, Scottish Care has been working with colleagues in COSLA and the Integrated Joint Boards to determine the real cost of caring for the 33,000 individuals who will spend tonight in a care home.

“Mr Kilgour’s research has served to shine a light on the inequality at the heart of how we fund care home places in Scotland. People will rightly be shocked that local authorities are using public monies to deliver care at disproportionately and substantially higher costs than they are prepared to pay independent sector providers."

He said the approach could threaten the viability of the sector and put residents at risk of losing their places if homes close.

“Local authorities, I suspect, are delivering care home provision, at much closer to what the real cost of care is. It is a credit to the sector that the quality of care in independent care homes is as high as it is given the historic underfunding this research has revealed."

A COSLA Spokesperson said: “Care homes in Scotland have had unprecedented financial support and prioritisation from Local Government against a hugely challenging financial backdrop. COSLA has worked with the sector to develop a care home cost model, used to determine the national care home contract fee in a clear and transparent manner that takes account of changes in cost pressures.

“This is just one recent development in councils’ long history of striving to protect care home provision. In the last 10 years the national care home contract fee has been increased year on year, with this amounting to a cumulative increase of 42%, contrasted with 81% of councils in England reducing rates over the same period. Care home providers are one of the few businesses to gain publicly funded support to raise wages to the Scottish Living Wage level and councils continue to work with partners to support improvements in the quality of care across the full range of providers.”