BBC News Online looks at the issue.

Why is there a funding crisis?

Care home owners say councils are simply not paying them as much as they need to provide care for elderly people.

Earlier this year, a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated the care home sector was under-funded annually by �1 billion.

Who does this affect?

Seventy per cent of people living in nursing and residential homes receive funding from the state because they have less than �19,500 in savings or property.

But there is no set figure that councils have to pay per resident, so different areas pay vastly different figures.

How serious is the situation?

Care home owners in several areas of the country are taking councils to court in the hope of winning higher fee payments.

But councils are warning that significant increases would mean the cost was passed on to the public in the form of higher council tax payments.

Could elderly people have to leave their homes?

In one area, North Somerset, care home owners have said if the council does not agree to pay higher fees, the contract they have to provide care to residents will end.

In theory, this could mean state funded residents having to move.

In practice, this is unlikely to happen as both sides will try to avoid such upset.

But the financial pressure on care homes means that, in some areas, there are not enough beds.

Is this connected to the row over whether the government should fund nursing care?

No, this is a separate funding argument.

But care homes say they are struggling financially because of a range of factors.

In addition to under-funding by councils, the rise in the minimum wage, new national standards introduced this year and staff recruitment and retention problems have all had an effect on homes.