Peers have led calls for a ‘real political consensus' to be forged in support of Andrew Dilnot's commission on the long-term funding of social care, which would set a lifetime cap on individual costs at between £25,000 and £50,000.

Baroness Pitkeathley last week lamented the failure of social care funding to keep pace with demographic pressures, and compared the significance of the Oxford economist's report, issued in July, to Beveridge's welfare reforms,