Suffolk County Council hopes to be able to send residents to Care UK homes at Mildenhall Lodge and Asterbury Place in Ipswich within the next month.

But there is still work to do to ensure they are both compliant with all the requirements of the council and the Care Quality Commission.

And the company has decided to delay opening its new Britten Court home at Lowestoft which had been due to open its doors later this month.

Senior managers from Care UK met bosses from the county council yesterday for crunch talks that were later described as “positive” by senior council officials.

Suffolk’s cabinet member for adult care Dr Alan Murray said he and his officials had been pleased by the seriousness with which Care UK seemed to be taking the issue.

He said: “The certainly seemed to understand how important this is now. There has been a new senior manager brought into Mildenhall Lodge and they are working through the issues.

“We aren’t ready to start sending people there again yet, and we would need to wait for the CQC to give a clean bill of health – but we were encouraged by what we heard.”

Dr Murray said council officials were now on the phone to Care UK senior bosses on a daily basis and were determined to sort out the problems.

The county’s own inspectors were still checking Asterbury Place in Ipswich which opened in July and has still to be inspected by the CQC.

Director of adult services Anna McCreadie said: “We certainly hope to be able to lift the suspensions during November.”

Care UK’s managing director for residential care Andrew Knight said: ”We had a positive and frank meeting this morning at which we outlined the actions we have already taken, and the action plans which have been agreed, to ensure that residents across the County receive the very best care in our homes.

“CQC inspections at 12 homes in Suffolk found 11 of them to be fully compliant, and the most recent visit to the remaining home, Mildenhall Lodge, found that while there is still work to be done, improvements have already been made.

“Suffolk County Council has confirmed that it has no embargo on admissions to any homes other than Mildenhall Lodge and Asterbury Place.

“Our priority is to make sure that future transfers of residents into new homes take place at the right pace and at a time when ourselves, CQC and the Council are confident that progress has been made at the two homes with improvements to complete.

“We have therefore taken the decision to delay the next stage in the programme – the opening of Britten Court in Lowestoft – and will be working closely with residents and their families over the coming weeks to confirm new dates for moves.”