Care workers are already choosing not to come to the UK because of the government’s plan to ban them from bringing their families, openDemocracy can reveal.

Industry experts have warned that care homes may be forced to close after home secretary James Cleverly announced that people who come to work in the UK on Health and Care Worker visas will no longer be allowed to bring dependents from April.

Raj Sehgal, the managing director of Armscare, which runs five care homes in Norfolk, said the announcement had already led two foreign applicants to pull out midway through a recruitment process, citing fears that they would be separated from their loved ones.

Speaking to openDemocracy, he asked: “If I was a nurse, and I was looking for an international career, why would I want to come to Britain now, when I can go to Canada or New Zealand or Australia or anywhere in the EU where there are also shortages of care workers?”

Sehgal, who is also a board member of the National Care Association, said it was “cruel” to expect people to work in Britain for years and be apart from their families.

“When people are applying for jobs – much-needed vacancies that need to be filled in this country – and they give up three or five years of their life only to be told you have no entitlement to settle or bring your family here, there is an element of cruelty involved,” he said.

There are more than 150,000 vacant posts in the care sector, according to a report commissioned by the government, and carried out by the charity Skills for Care. An ageing population means the UK will need an extra 440,000 care workers by 2035.

Independent care homes managers say the proposed law changes could force their homes to close.

Alan Hiscutt, who manages an elderly people’s care home in Southampton, told openDemocracy that 80% of his staff are foreign nationals, many of whom are in the UK on a Health and Care Worker visa.

“In time, I will probably lose most of my staff if their families can’t join them for various reasons. And I very much doubt I’m alone in that boat with small care providers, because we can barely support minimum wage with our current financial constraints,” he said.

Hiscutt said he hadn’t come across any evidence to suggest the Health and Care worker visa is being abused, as Cleverly claimed in Parliament last week.

“We’re getting a much higher quality of candidates through the sponsorship programme than we do if we advertise on Indeed, for example. So I don’t see a risk of abuse.”

Sehgal said the government should focus on meeting the challenges care homes currently face, rather than creating new ones.

“We were spending £20,000 a year on gas and electricity before the cost-of-living crisis, now we spend £2,000 a week,” he said. “Where does that get funded from? [Care homes] are just closing their doors.”

Last year, 247 care homes closed in the UK while only 123 opened, according to care sector research firm CSI Market Intelligence.

A government spokesperson said: “The government’s plan will ensure we can continue to bring in the workers that our care sector and NHS need, whilst taking action to address immigration non-compliance and unacceptable reports of labour exploitation and abuse.

“We need to strike the right balance between ethical international recruitment alongside building our homegrown care workforce. That’s why we’ve provided almost £2 billion over two years to help councils support the workforce and are investing in retention through better training, recognition and career progression.”