Southwark Council has approved the disposal of land for a new care home on Asylum Road, in a move aimed at addressing the increasing need for nursing care within the borough.
The decision, made at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 14 October 2025, concerns land at 128-148 Asylum Road and 133-137 Queens Road and will see the council enter into an agreement for lease (AfL) and subsequent 999-year lease with Andover Care Ltd, who will build and operate the care home. The target opening date is in late 2029, with construction planned between 2027 and 2029.
The new care home is expected to have around 90 bedspaces. The agreement with Andover Care Ltd includes an overage payment clause for any additional bedspaces exceeding this number. To ensure local residents have access to the care they need, the agreement includes a 50% bed-block (30% Nursing Dementia (ND); 20% Residential Dementia (RD)), with first refusal on a further 10%, on a 10-year contract with an option to review and agree further terms thereafter.
The Director of Planning and Growth has been delegated authority to finalise the terms of the AfL and lease grant, while the Strategic Director of Children's Adults' Services will finalise the terms of the supplementary agreement for the care service for an initial 10-year period.
The cabinet also noted that further feedback from the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission meeting, scheduled for Thursday 16 October 2025, would be taken into account during the lease negotiation stage with Andover.
Planning and Growth will explore options for appointing the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) at the University of Stirling, as sector specialists, to comment on the proposed design.
Councillor Helen Dennis, Cabinet Member for New Homes and Sustainable Development, said the council was delighted to be bringing forward the report, which proposes a way forward for the delivery of a new Nursing Home at the Asylum Road site. She added that the recent Nursing Home Needs Assessment has shown that there is still a need and anticipated future need for additional placements in Southwark.
The report set out that the Andover offer meets the council's expectations for this land-transaction, with its approach to care and with its commercial offer. The delivery of the proposed new care home is anticipated to generate around 100 new jobs, ranging from unqualified positions to qualified staff and sector-specific managerial roles. Andover has committed to London Living Wage ('LLW') and to endeavour to recruit locally, boost footfall in the locality, support local businesses and enhance the urban environment; it is thereby expected that the care home would present an overall positive effect for the local community.
The Nursing Home Needs Assessment, 14 August 2024 concluded that the opening of a new care home at Asylum Road will contribute to meeting the rising demand for nursing care provision in the borough, both council-funded and private-funded. The report addresses the predicted rise in demand for nursing care placements in Southwark and this is set out against the current in borough capacity: that demand is currently outstripping supply; that demand rate has risen since 2021; and that needs of residents are becoming increasingly complex, with rates of dementia rising. It sets out that if the nursing placement capacity is not increased in Southwark, more residents will require out-of-borough placements, resulting in higher costs, delayed hospital discharges and in some instances, residents not being placed in their local community. It concludes with an endorsement for the delivery of a new care home in the borough.
