Labour needs to ‘see social care as vehicle for growth’ as report finds 1m more informal carers will be needed by 2035

However, he said, if the government can bring in reforms, the care sector will “keep people in work, put money back into taxes and the economy, and help bring NHS waiting lists down”.

A report from the Future Social Care Coalition last year found that every £1 invested in social care, £1.75 ended up back in the economy.

“My worry has always been about the government not quite connecting the link between the workforce and the growth in the economy, and those who might have to give up their work to care for a loved one,” Mr Padgham, who is also chair of the Independent Care Group, said.

The new Labour government has already indefinitely delayed its pre-election promise to bring in the fees cap, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves blaming a £22 billion black hole in public finances.

Mr Padgham said that by scrapping the cap on social care costs that “could stymie growth if people have to give up work to look after a loved one”.

“There are already millions of unpaid carers and without the unpaid carers at the minute we’d be sunk,” he added.

His comments come as a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation predicts that almost a million more people will have informal care responsibilities by 2035.

The think tank says that 400,000 of those will be providing 10 or more hours of informal care and 130,000 of those will be of working age.

Abby Jitendra, the foundation’s principal policy adviser for care, said: “In the next 10 years the UK faces a crisis of care as we get older and live with illness for longer.

“Our already strained paid care system is unfit to meet growing and changing care needs.

“On top of that, a million more of us will be caring despite inadequate support which leaves unpaid carers at a higher risk of poverty.”

The think tank is calling on Labour to set up a cross-departmental taskforce to prepare for a “crisis of care”.

“Government should set up a Future Care Needs taskforce to plan cross-governmental action to meet the rising tide of care needs, improving paid care services while making it easier for people to care themselves through benefits support and paid leave,” she explained.

“This will give people real choice, as care needs grow, over how to meet theirs or their loved one's care needs."

Labour has pledged to bring in a National Care Service within this Parliament and a fair pay deal for care workers, although has given minimal detail on either.