COUNCIL TAX SET TO RISE BY £160 New levy to tackle our care crisis... as millions frittered on foreign aid

COUNCIL taxes could rise by almost £160 over the next two years to help tackle the crisis in social care.

Ministers are expected to give town halls the power to increase an existing levy that funds support for the elderly.

The rise was due to be 2 per cent a year for the next three years. But councils will be allowed to bring the increase forward if they can cite an immediate crisis.

This could lead to bills being raised by 3 per cent next year and another 3 per cent in 2018/19, provided there is no increase the following year. Town halls are also allowed to raise bills by a further 2 per cent to pay for other services – giving a potential increase next year of 5 per cent.

That would add £76.50 next year to the average £1,530 bill for a Band D property. A similar rise would follow the year after.

Care home providers warned yesterday that the crisis in social care was so serious that the ‘whole thing could topple over at any moment’.

Council leaders believe they need billions extra to keep the sector afloat amid a rapidly ageing population, budget cuts and rises in the living wage.

Yesterday, Government sources insisted that the council tax plan would not result in the public paying any more overall.

They also stressed that the maximum annual increase in the social care precept

‘The whole thing could topple over’

would be 3 per cent a year. Ministers said money was no silver bullet – effectively laying the blame on the worst-performing councils.

However, Labour claimed that shifting the problem to council taxpayers would only worsen the existing ‘ postcode lottery’ in social care.

Experts said the sums raised would be nowhere near large enough to plug an expected £1.3billion funding gap this year. There are predictions of care homes closing – triggering a bed shortage in the NHS.

Elderly patients cannot be discharged if no care can be arranged by the local council.

Izzi Seccombe, Conservative leader of Warwickshire County Council and chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: ‘ We need £1.3billion now.’

She said there would be a shortfall of £2.6billion by 2020.

Tory former health secretary Stephen Dorrell said that he was in favour of a hike in the precept.

But he warned: ‘What we need to look to do is to have a review of the funding of the whole of the health and care system. Because what we’re talking about is a cash short- age that is threatening the stability not just of local government, but of the National Health Service.

‘Unless we address this seriously we simply see a developing failure of service across the range of local public services and people will suffer as a consequence of that failure.’

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents care home providers, said: ‘The whole thing could topple over at any moment and those who are poor and vulnerable will suffer most.

‘We saw some research recently which said that about 40 per cent of care services will no longer be viable in the medium term, so this is a huge number of care services that will be lost.’

Asked if care companies would go bankrupt, he replied: ‘Definitely.’ Mr Green said that would mean care homes closing and a shortage of beds for those who need them.

Labour said it was unfair to ‘dump’ solving the crisis in social care fund- ing on to council tax bills. Barbara Keeley, who is Labour’s care spokesman, said letting councils increase the social care precept would only widen inequality between rich and poor areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without help.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: ‘Making

councils bear all the burden will increase the postcode lottery which already exists.

‘It will mean that wealthy parts of the country will find it easier to meet rising demand while those areas where council tax raises less money will be left struggling.

‘The Government must be held to account for the consequences of leaving more and more people without the care they desperately need.’

Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday acknowledged that he had discussed the issue of social care with Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of the Autumn State- ment last month, but said it was ‘not true’ she had vetoed the idea of more cash for the sector.

Mr Hammond said that, since then, ministers could not fail to have noticed the ‘cacophony’ of lobbying by councils and health trusts over the issue.