Local councils to spend an extra £308m on adult social care services

This new revenue allows for increased flexibility as part of the historic local government finance settlement seeing spending increase by more than two per cent.

Communities secretary Greg Clark commented: “At a time when local authorities are playing their part in paying down the deficit, more than £300m extra will be invested this year to deliver high-quality adult social care services.

“Councils will have almost £200bn to spend on services over the lifetime of this Parliament and I’m pleased the vast majority are also making use of new flexibilities to prioritise the services people really care about.”

Local authorities are continuing to deliver a better deal for local taxpayers by keeping costs low and maintaining public satisfaction with services.

As part of the long-term local government finance settlement, local councils have nearly £200bn to allocated towards services over the lifetime of the current Parliament, including an extra £3.5bn for the care of older people and those who are vulnerable.

Up to £2bn worth of this funding will come from the new flexibility to introduce a two per cent ‘social care precept’ – the equivalent of £23 a year on an average Band D home in 2016 to 2017 – which will help local authorities to provide dedicated care services for the UK’s increasing older population.

An additional £1.5bn will be made available for councils to work with the NHS to ensure that care is available for older and vulnerable people, including after hospital treatment through the Better Care Fund.

It is anticipated that by the end of this decade, councils will be ‘self-sufficient’, funded by revenues they raise locally rather than central Government grants, giving them control over an additional £13bn of tax revenues.

For the three-years following 1 April 2016, local authorities are also able to spend any revenues they generate from selling surplus assets, including property or shares and bonds to fund the costs of improvements to essential services.

The figures reveal that local authorities are planning to raise more than £80m to reinvest in transforming existing services.

Read the full report here.