The biggest change in older people's care in Bristol in decades was given the go-ahead last night – despite protests from trade unions and opposition councillors.

The city's ruling Labour cabinet approved plans to shut eight out of 13 council-run care homes in Bristol.

The five surviving homes will be refurbished – along with two other disused old people's homes.

Three will be turned into specialist accommodation for people with dementia.

The other four will reopen as resource centres. Part of their purpose is to provide short-term care, for instance to former hospital patients following operations.

The £11.4 million project, called Residential Futures, is controversial.

Staff have been promised there will be no compulsory redundancies but many of the 400 care workers still fear for their jobs.

Some of the 470 residents and their relatives do not want the upheaval and would like things to stay as they are.

But the council says it cannot afford the far greater cost – at least £27m – of bringing all its homes up to Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) standards.

Some homes might even have needed rebuilding, which would have put costs up still further.

Bristol, in any case, lags behind other cities in the trend rely more on the private sector for the care of the elderly.

Many other councils have got rid of many care homes.

They still help pay to put some people in private care homes. But otherwise they spend more on supporting elderly people to live independently.

Bristol is planning to increase its spending to £2m or so over the next two or three years on this.

Home care includes help with washing, dressing and feeding.

This can be in people's own homes or in very sheltered housing (VSH) centres now springing up around the city.

The council's target is to for 600 VSH units – where individuals or couples still have their "own front door" – to be built in Bristol over the next few years.

But there were stark warnings at the cabinet meeting yesterday that parts of the Residential Futures project could be derailed by the credit crunch and the slump in the property market.

With around £2m pump-priming from the council's capital budget to get the project started, the aim is to fund the rest with the sale of eight care homes.

They are: Hayleigh, in Bedminster; Maesknoll, Whitchurch; St Peter's, Horfield; Birchwood, St Anne's; Coombe, Westbury-on-Trym; Gleeson House, Fishponds; Greville, Stockwood; and Rockwell, Lawrence Weston.

The council values these sites at a total of more than £12m.

Tory deputy leader Councillor Geoff Gollop fears that, in the present economic climate, sales may fall short of expectations.

He and the GMB union, which represents many care workers, are concerned this could mean the four resource centres were never upgraded to CSCI standards – and they might even have to close.

Councillor Derek Pickup, who is in charge of adult care services, said this would not happen.

New money – from "prudential borrowing" or the sale of other land or buildings in council ownership – would have to be found, if necessary, to safeguard the project, he said.

Mr Pickup told the Bristol Evening Post: "We won't back out and leave vulnerable people in the lurch."

The resource centres – at Bowmead, Stockwood; Brentry House, Brentry; Broomhill; and Westleigh, St George – will not just provide services to short-term admissions.

Residents of homes that close who want to carry on living "under a council roof" will be able to move to these sites.

It had been feared residents of Bowmead, Brentry House, Broomhill and Westleigh would have to move out permanently. They have now been told by Bristol City Council they will be able to stay put.