Wirral Council is maintaining a "constant dialogue" with troubled care home giant Southern Cross as the company continues to try to resolve its financial difficulties.

The firm, responsible for looking after 31,000 elderly residents across the UK, has announced it will underpay its rent from Wednesday as it struggles with a £230m annual rental bill.

Southern Cross, which owns six care homes in Wirral with around 450 beds, will pay nearly a third less rent than it is obliged to for the next four months in what is effectively a loan from its landlords.

The company recently warned it was in a "critical financial condition" as it unveiled a £311m loss in the six months to March 31.

Wirral cabinet member for social care Cllr Ann McArdle told the Globe: "We have been monitoring this for some time and have been in constant dialogue with Southern Cross.

"As things stand, we are quite confident that the risk of the company collapsing is low.

"However, if we think that the situation is changing, we will have contingency plans in place for the residents."

The GMB union, which has around 12,000 members working in the care homes, urged politicians across the UK to take action to help secure the future for the staff and the residents.

General secretary Paul Kenny said: "The focus now has to be on what happens to the 31,000 elderly and vulnerable residents in Southern Cross homes across the UK.

"The GMB is calling on politicians across the country to step in and sort out the uncertainty that surrounds the future of these care homes.

"These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community."

The GMB will discuss the future of Southern Cross in an emergency debate at its annual conference in Brighton next week.

The Press Association reports that Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman gave a guarantee that affected residents would not "lose out" in the process.

"We are clear that we are putting the interests of residents at the top of the list," he said. "It may well be in their interests to keep them in the same place.

"But I think we have to look at that very carefully and we have got to let this process continue with the company and the various other interested parties."