Council tax increases will help to raise an extra £900 million for social care over the next two years, ministers have said, but campaigners have dismissed the figure as insufficient.
The plans confirmed by Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, yesterday will lead to a rise in council tax bills by an average of £90 a year. Councils will be allowed to bring forward an increase of 3 per cent in April and a further 3 per cent in 2018.
Mr Javid said that the changes would raise £208 million in the next financial year and £444 million in 2018-19. In addition, a £240 million adult social care support grant will be created for 2017-18 by reforms to an existing scheme that was designed to encourage councils to build extra properties.
His announcement confirmed plans revealed by The Times this week, and came after Simon Stevens, leader of NHS England, suggested scrapping triple-locked pensions and free bus passes to pay for the crumbling system.
After a 3 per cent rise in council tax the annual bill for an average band D property in England would go up from £1,530 to £1,575.90 — an increase of £45.90, rising to more than £90 extra in 2018-19 compared with this year.
Advertisement
The announcement was derided by many MPs, including Conservatives, who accused Mr Javid of “repurposing” cash and failing to “grasp [the] seriousness of the shortfall”. Critics said that the money would not be enough to plug the black hole in social care, estimated to be more than £2 billion.
Labour said that Britons were facing higher taxes but worse public services, while the Liberal Democrats called it a “gutless stealth tax rise” which will allow councils to “shake down the poorest in society for more cash”.
Vicky McDermott, of the Care and Support Alliance, said: “This temporary injection of cash is a drop in the ocean and does nothing to solve the long challenges facing the system.”
Figures from the International Longevity Centre suggested that the value of a 3 per cent precept would vary across the country, with those having small elderly populations benefiting the most. The east London borough of Tower Hamlets, where 6 per cent of the population is aged over 65, could raise £160 for each elderly person but in West Somerset, which has a 32 per cent elderly population, a 3 per cent increase would raise only £53 for each person.
• Analysis showed yesterday that hospitals were dangerously full last winter, stoking concern over how the NHS will cope over the coming months.
Advertisement
More than 95 per cent of hospital beds were occupied all winter, and during some periods hospitals reached maximum capacity, according to the Nuffield Trust think tank. When beds are more than 85 per cent occupied infection rates rise, while patients are made to wait longer and have operations cancelled.
John Appleby, chief economist at the Nuffield Trust, said: “The NHS is going into this winter in an even worse position than it was a year ago. These pressures pose a real threat to the smooth running of hospitals and, ultimately, to patient safety.”
