What a shameful way to plug the massive funding gap created by successive government policy failures. At the same time as local government is rapidly approaching its own funding crisis, with many paddling like crazy to avoid their canoes going over the edge of the waterfall, government turns on the misery tap further.
Not only don’t they tackle the problem with a national strategy – the only sustainable long term solution, they make local government the villain of the piece by forcing councils to take the Hobson’s choice of increasing their council tax.
Sort out the care crisis and you sort out the crisis currently being suffered by many hospitals with bed blocking and the knock on effect this is having in A&E. However, in a classic piece of silo thinking and buck passing, government has decided to make sure local government is the focus for public’s anger, with the triple whammy of reducing provision, continued inadequate funding and increasing levels of council tax.
PLANS to allow Councils to bring forward tax increases of 6% to pay for social care have been announced by Sajid Javid.
The proposal will add more than £90 to the average bill for a Band D property.
The Communities Secretary said millions of extra money would be put into social care
It will allow councils to raise hundreds of millions of pounds – £208m in 2017/18 and £440m in 2018/19 – to spend on looking after frail and elderly people at home.
Theresa May says it will help relieve pressures on the system, but that better organisation also was needed to make sure money was being spent well.
Opposition politicians called on the Government to scrap a corporation tax cut
Mr Javid, the Communities Secretary also said that there will be a reform of the new homes bonus to reallocate an extra £240m to social care.
Roger Gambba-Jones 