Finney House will not be used as accommodation for asylum seekers – and there has never been a conversation about it happening.
That is the verdict from the owners of the building who intend to reopen the site as a care home when the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals lease expires.
The site, on Flintoff Way, had been used to support Royal Preston Hospital but was confirmed for closure in March this year. The scheme was hailed a success but costs meant that it couldn’t continue.
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The building is owned by L&M Healthcare who have now told Blog Preston that they intend to reopen the building as a care home.
A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that on completion of the lease period with Lancashire Hospitals Trust, L&M Healthcare will apply for registration with the CQC for the purpose of re-opening the care home facility.”
The suggestion that the building might be used to house asylum seekers was first made by Luke Parker, at that time a Reform UK candidate for Preston East in the Lancashire County Council elections, in April – despite the care home sitting outside of the boundary of the division he was campaigning in.
He said at that time that he was sharing ‘unconfirmed reports’ the closing facility would be used to house asylum seekers and that it raised serious questions. When Lancashire Teaching Hospitals described his report as ‘unfounded and misleading’, he responded by saying that he was raising awareness and promoting transparency.
But now Blog Preston has been told by L&M Healthcare that there has ‘never been any conversation whatsoever’ about housing asylum seekers at Finney House.
Cllr Luke Parker, now representing Preston East at Lancashire County Council, did not respond when asked if he would like to share, for transparency, where he had received his initial tip-off about asylum seekers at the hotel.
Reform UK also did not respond.
But opponents say that the claim was intended to ‘stir up outrage’ in the build-up to the election.
Cllr John Potter, leader of the Liberal Democrats at Lancashire County Council, told Blog Preston: “This is straight out of the Reform playbook: make something up, lie to everyone about it, stir up some outrage then never apologise or admit you were wrong.”
“Some of the Reform councillors and candidates need to take off the tin foil hats, stop reading conspiracy theories and actually concentrate on trying to help the communities they are supposed to represent.”
L&M Healthcare’s previous management of Finney House was troubled.
An inspection in August 2021 by the CQC found that the service was inadequate even when the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic were taken into account. There were breaches in relation to keeping people safe from preventable harm and the care home was placed into special measures.
Those special measures were lifted after an inspection in June 2022 when its rating was upgraded to ‘requires improvement’ and the CQC found that improvements had been made, although there were still some areas of concerns.
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