Prime Minister Liz Truss should use any upcoming emergency budget to address the inflation cost pressures facing council budgets and the social care crisis, council chiefs say.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has written to the new PM warning that without more funding some councils will face ‘a battle to balance budgets’.
The LGA urged the PM to follow through on her pledge to invest more in social care and called for a greater proportion of national funding equivalent to that which would be raised by the health and care levy (£13bn) to be invested in care services.
The letter also warned of the impact on local authority budgets of rising energy prices, spiralling inflation, and the National Living Wage, and called for ‘a real transfer of powers and funding from Whitehall.’
‘It is only by addressing this significant funding gap that councils can protect services, invest in local services and employ the necessary skilled and motivated workforce and deliver for our communities and level up all parts of the country,’ the letter said.
‘Alongside this, greater devolution of funding and powers will allow councils to fulfil their ambitions as leaders of place.’
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that the Government has made available £3.7bn of additional funding to local authorities this year, which can be spent on adult social care.
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