PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Social Services: Finance (14 March 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of local authorities that will exercise their right to levy the two per cent social care tax precept; and what assessment he has made of whether the revenue so raised will be sufficient to cover the funding gap for adult social care.

Asked by:
Alison McGovern (Labour)

It is the decision of local councils whether to raise the adult social care precept in order to pay for adult social care in their local area. The precept gives local areas who are best placed to respond to local needs and pressures the flexibility to be able to do so. There will be a statistical release showing the number of councils taking up the precept on 30 March 2016.

Additionally, from April 2017 the Spending Review makes available social care funds for local government, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20, to be included in the Better Care Fund (BCF). We have deliberately distributed the improved BCF in such a way that those councils with low council tax bases will benefit most.

Taken together, the new precept and additional BCF contribution mean local government has access to the funding it needs to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.

Answered by:
Alistair Burt (Conservative)
17 March 2016