Adult social care budgets could face a £500m ‘black hole’ because councillors will be reluctant to increase council tax in the face of elections, new analysis reveals.
Last December, the Government announced plans to tackle the social care funding crisis by giving local authorities the power to raise council tax by 6%--the social care precept--over the next two years.
However, Health Incisive, specialists in health policy and communications, has argued that many councillors will not want to raise taxes before next year’s local elections.
Their analysis found that more than one in five councils with the powers to implement the precept face local elections next year, including 13 swing councils currently under no overall control.
The researchers warned campaigns to ‘freeze council tax’ were common in local elections with 32 out of the 35 councils who are up for election this year choosing to freeze or cut council tax when they were last up for election.
‘Letting councils raise extra money is one step removed from giving an actual cash boost,’ said Health Incisive founding partner Mike Birtwistle.
‘Local councillors with unpredictable local elections to manage will now have to decide whether they are prepared to face voters having raised taxes.
‘Increasing the precept is the beginning of the tough political decisions, not the end of the financial crisis in elderly care.’
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