£166m in local government finance settlement

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has announced an additional £166 million for councils to help relieve spending pressures in social care and rural areas in the final 2018/19 settlement.

In his written statement, Javid confirmed £150 million for the adult social care support grant in 2018/19, which previously was thought to be not be available in the next financial year. Making up the £166 million, the Local Government Secretary also announced an extra £16 million more for the £31 million rural services delivery grant.

Responding to the settlement, Paul Carter, chairman of the County Councils Network, said: “The announcement of funding for upper-tier authorities and rural districts shows that the County Councils Network has secured additional resource for councils of all types. We welcome the government listening to our case and providing local government with much-needed extra resource to go towards meeting the rising costs in social care, particularly in counties, who have unique pressures as they are home to the largest and fastest growing elderly populations.

“While this funding provides some new resource for this coming financial year we must continue to work with ministers, who understand the enormity of the financial challenges facing counties, to deliver a long-term sustainable and fair funding solution to meet the estimated £2.54 billion funding gap for counties. The government should therefore continue in the positive vein shown in the recently announced fair funding review consultation and adopt an evidence-based funding methodology that truly recognises growing demographic pressures in counties and the additional costs of delivering services in rural areas.”

Furthermore, Lord Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “The new £150 million announced today is recognition of the LGA’s warning about the urgent need for the government to further try and help councils tackle some of the immediate social care pressures they face. It is good that the government has confirmed it will avoid further New Homes Bonus changes and has committed to find a way to help those councils who will no longer receive any core central government grant in 2019/20. The additional one-off social care funding announced today is a temporary measure and needs to be compared against an annual social care funding gap of £2.3 billion by 2020.

“Councils in England face an overall funding gap that will exceed £5 billion by 2020. We remain clear that the government needs to allow local government to keep every penny of business rates collected to plug this growing funding gap and provide the £1.3 billion needed right now to stabilise the care provider market. Only with the right funding and powers, can councils continue to lead their local areas, improve residents’ lives, reduce demand for services and save money for the taxpayer.”