People living in a care home in Somerset - including a 99-year-old resident - are faced with finding a new home.

Warwick Gardens in Taunton, seen as a model of care for elderly people when it opened more than a decade ago, is to close after financial problems.

Twenty-nine elderly people will be left looking for a new home when the home closes at the end of March.

The owners blame the government, saying MPs have introduced a number of new regulations for care homes, without any financial support.

Mr Davies said spaces in the county were scarce

Richard Parrish of South West Care said: "The government is prepared to spend billions at the cost of goodness knows how many lives at the expense of a war the nation does not want.

"Yet it is not prepared to spend a few poultry millions on people who have spent their lives enduring two world wars and defending the nation."

Figures released by the National Care Homes Association show that in one year the number of residential beds for the elderly in the South West dropped from 50,000 to 48,200.

'Best plans'

Most residents at Warwick Gardens have their fees paid by Somerset Social Services who now have the job of finding them a new home.

Chris Davies of the county's social services department said: "It will be a real struggle.

"The social workers, nurses and doctors are meeting to try and make the best possible plans for them, but there aren't a huge lot of vacancies in the area to call on."

The department of health said the regulations were there to protect care home residents by improving good homes and were not intended to close them down.