Mr Kilgour said he had started drawing up plans to reduce investment across his string of care homes since Ms Reeves announced the tax changes at her maiden Budget last month.
As well as cutbacks, he also warned about the prospect of job losses and has refused to rule out closures.
“What I don’t understand is why the Government is shooting themselves in the foot as far as their plans for the NHS,” he said. “If care homes close because of this, then they are going to be ones that mainly house a high percentage of local authority residents.
“That is going to lead to more bed blocking in NHS hospitals, cancelled operations and longer waiting lists. This Budget is another classic example of NHS first and social care second. It illustrates a complete lack of understanding.”
He added: “The care home sector is already running on fumes and I worry that the trickle of closures we have seen since the end of the pandemic will turn into a flood. That is a real fear of mine.”
Growth fears
As well as pursuing legal action against the Government, Mr Kilgour is also preparing to write to allies of Health Secretary Wes Streeting to highlight the Budget’s negative impact on the NHS.
Mr Kilgour said other care home operators are willing to support his judicial review, many of which are also preparing to cut costs following the Budget.
He is not alone in protesting against the policy, as high street retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have also warned about ballooning costs because of the NICs tax raid.
This has sparked fears about the Government’s plan to boost growth, potentially jeopardising Sir Keir Starmer’s bid to make Britain the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
Mr Kilgour said: “If millions of businesses like mine are going to be cutting back then where is growth going to come from? It’s not rocket science.”
GP surgeries have also criticised the policy, which has fuelled speculation that they could receive compensation from the Government.
A Treasury spokesman said: “Whilst we will not comment on potential litigation matters, last week we invested an extra £22.6bn in our health and social care system – including £600m grant funding in social care. We had to take the tough decisions to fix the foundations of our public services, but we did this while protecting payslips from higher tax.”