Prime Minister Keir Starmer has tempered public expectations regarding social care reform, particularly the much-discussed cap on care costs.

Last week he said that the government would not be able to commit to the timeline the previous Conservative government had laid out for its care cost reforms.

Rishi Sunak’s government had pledged to introduce an £86,000 limit on lifetime care costs for UK citizens by October 2025.

This date itself was already much-delayed after Andre Dilnot first proposed the idea back in 2011.

Legislation followed in 2014, but the plans were delayed, resurfacing again in 2021 with an October 2023 date first touted.

Starmer has now called the Tories’ latest timeline, for an October 2025 introduction, unrealistic and “undeliverable”.

Instead, he has confirmed that health and social care reform will not be a quick process, but will be set out in a 10-year plan, with no specific dates set for the launching of a National Care Service, a care cost cap or any other kind of reform.

The Prime Minister did, however, confirm that the cap on care costs would be “within the 10-year plan”.

Starmer said: “Promises were again made by the last government. They were delayed because they were undeliverable.

“We’ve looked at them. We don’t think they are deliverable in the time frame the last government said.

“That’s why we’ve taken them down and will review it. It is an issue we are going to have to look at. I readily accept that. We will have it within the 10-year plan but, again, it’s got to be done properly, it’s got to be deliverable.”