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A survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) estimates that English councils with care responsibilities will have to find double the £250m estimated cost of the proposals, announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last year.

It believes the true total cost of the offer could exceed £1bn a year, more than £300m more than the Government’s own estimates.

The association added that the bill would turn the 4% efficiencies most local authorities are currently pledged to offering into efficiencies of 4.7%.

Under the proposals, adults judged to be “critical” under the current Fair Access to Care Services criteria would be entitled to free care. However there is no authoritative data on the precise level of cost or demand for this work.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham insists it will cost £670m a year - a maximum £420m coming from existing Department of Health budgets, with the estimated £250m remainder coming from additional local government “efficiency savings”.

The proposals are not without critics inside the Labour Party.

Lord Lipsey (Lab) said he believed the decision to announce plans for the Care at Home Bill during the consultation for the government’s social care Green Paper made it “one of the most disorderly pieces of legislation I’ve ever seen in 40 years of political life”.

He told Radio 4’s Today Programme: “I think that it’s a bad policy, but I think it’s a very bad way to do policy just to find a nice highlight in your Labour Party conference speech.”

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