Elderly and vulnerable people in Hertfordshire have fewer carers available to them after the county council lost two contracts with home care providers.

Hertfordshire County Council has confirmed that it lost the contracts last year – one ended because the private company went bankrupt and the second was terminated by the council because of poor performance and quality concerns.

On Monday, an investigation revealed that 95 councils had lost home care contracts. 

The private companies were forced to terminate them because they were struggling to deliver a service on the funding that councils offered them.

But Hertfordshire County Council refused to say which companies they lost contracts with, how much they paid them or the number of carers that the area lost as a consequence. It claimed the information was too "commercially sensitive".

A spokesperson insisted the council paid more than the “recommended rate” and that business could be “run successfully” on the funding they offered. 

Muireann Banerjee, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council, said: “We prioritise the safety, welfare and wellbeing of these vulnerable people and expect the delivery of good care at all times.

“We can confirm that two home care contracts were terminated last year out of a total of 50.

“The local authority’s’ average hourly rate for homecare providers is above the United Kingdom Homecare Association’s recommended rate, and we believe a business can be run successfully and safely at those rates.

"We have a robust process in place to ensure that in the unfortunate event of a contract termination, we can smoothly transfer the service to another provider in the area without a negative impact on the continuity of care. In these cases, the majority of existing care staff transferred to new providers to ensure the continued and ongoing care of 500 people.”

Almost a quarter of the UK’s 2,500 care home providers are at risk of insolvency and 70 have closed down in the past three months.

Earlier this year, the Local Government Association said the number of people with “unmet basic needs”, like getting washed or dressed, was at risk of rising due to the underfunding of social care. It also warned that users may receive shorter visits from carers.

In this month’s budget, the chancellor Philip Hammond announced £2bn extra funding for social care over the next three years.