Peter Saunders has argued that Britain, and other countries, are seeing the emergence of a major new consumption cleavage between those who pay for private provision through the market and those who rely on state provision. In this paper this thesis is examined by looking at changes in residential care for the elderly in Britain. It is argued that although there has been a rapid growth in private provision during the 1980s, the consumption cleavage thesis is inappropriate for a number of reasons. First, as with education and health, residents do not own the means of consumption but pay for their use. Second, there is no evidence that the quality of care is better in the private sector than in the public sector. Third, owing to the rapid expansion of state financial support for private care, most private residential homes how accommodate a large proportion of publicly financed residents. In addition, local authority homes also provide for residents who pay for care from private funds or the sale of their house. There is therefore no clear-cut divide between the public and the private sectors in terms of residents or financing.
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