THE PRIORY Group, which is famed for its celebrity rehabilitation clinic, is to roll out a £50 million expansion in the North.

The group, which moved into Northern Ireland for the first time last year, has outlined plans to open at least 17 new care homes for older people by the end of 2012.

Sharon Butler, managing director of Priory Care Homes, said the new investment would be in “key demographic locations” for the group, including Belfast, Coleraine, north Down and Ards, Craigavon and Ballymena.

The project is scheduled to provide about 1,200 beds and has the potential to create 1,000 jobs.

Northern Ireland-born Ms Butler said the expansion represented a significant move into the older people care-home market and presented a “perfect growth opportunity”.

Priory intends to develop a range of care homes offering long-term, short-term and respite nursing care for older people who are physically frail or living with dementia-related disorders.

Private medical care and assistance is a growing market in Northern Ireland. The Priory investment marks the second major boost for the sector in the last month.

US-listed Allied Healthcare International’s UK arm has recently acquired a shareholding in Homecare Independent Living. Allied said it acquired a 50.1 per cent stake in the holding company of the Homecare business in a deal for £3.9 million.

Homecare was founded by directors Mairéad and Gerald Mackle in 1994 and was originally based in Armagh.

The company, which expanded into the Republic in 2006, provides care in the home for older people, physically disabled, those with mental health problems, children, those with learning disabilities and new mothers.

The unaudited statutory accounts of the five divisions that make up the Homecare business for the year ended March 31st, 2009, showed aggregated revenues of £9.4 million, pre-tax profits £300,000 and net assets of approximately £200,000.

Sandy Young, chief executive officer of Allied, said that where Britain had outsourced approximately 80 per cent of home-care services to the independent sector, Northern Ireland and the Republic were at about 50 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

“We see these markets following the same trends of outsourcing and rapidly ageing populations as we have seen in Great Britain and, therefore, they are of great strategic value to Allied.”