Norfolk County Council has voted against a motion that would have blocked any sale of its care homes until independent condition surveys and a proper business case were completed.

The motion, proposed by Cllr Steve Morphew and seconded by Cllr Colleen Walker, argued that the £80m figure frequently cited for upgrading the council's care estate actually represents the cost of completely replacing all care homes with new buildings — not the cost of bringing existing homes up to standard.

The motion also claimed no individual surveys had been carried out on any of the homes, including some that are modern and owned freehold by Norse, the council's wholly-owned company. It concluded that the financial case for selling the care estate lacked sound evidence.

Cllr Morphew's motion asked the council to halt any capital programme changes linked to care home disposals until condition surveys were done, and to commission advice on converting NorseCare into a standalone social enterprise operating for community benefit rather than profit.

The motion was defeated by 32 votes to 19, with no abstentions.

The debate comes after Norse Care relinquished its contract at Swallowtail Place following a Care Quality Commission inspection that found care there to be inadequate. A separate motion at the same meeting — which also failed — called for stronger scrutiny of CQC reports, arguing that both the Swallowtail Place findings and a broader inspection of adult services had not received proper committee examination.