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Fears that residential care could be replaced by very supported housing were allayed this week after it was calculated such a move would cost between £25bn and £30bn.

Andrew Stow, chair of the National Care Forum care services committee, estimated it would cost billions to replace every care home place with one in an extra care housing scheme.

"The government made £87m available for extra care last month. At that rate it would take about 257 years to get the money for enough places," he told the annual conference of the forum, which represents the interests of not-for-profit health and social care providers in the UK.

He said he did not believe that residential care would "completely disappear".

Denise Platt, chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, said a range of care options was needed to improve choice and meet individual needs and lifestyles.

Stow said there was an "urgent" need for the government to relax planning permission rules so that the independent sector could afford land for very supported housing schemes. Currently, the sector could not match the money offered by house builders and government, he added.

Earlier, community care minister Stephen Ladyman told the conference in Nottingham that he did not believe that long-term care was synonymous with care provided in care homes but that there was still a role for residential care in the future.