Sunak hails biggest investment in local government for 10 years
CHANCELLOR RISHI Sunak has claimed that there has been a “turning of the corner” in local government funding.
Mr Sunak, who the day before had delivered the Budget, drew on his experience as Local Government Minister to hammer home his commitment to councils.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post while on a visit to Leeds on Thursday, he said: “I speak to Carl (Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council) all the time, so I have a very good idea about what’s going on in North Yorkshire.
“Also, I was Local Government Minister so I would like to think I have a very good understanding of what’s going on, on the ground.”
Mr Sunak threw some help to local government in the Budget in the wake of coronavirus, and announced authorities would be able to draw upon a short-term £5bn emergency fund shared with the NHS to support social
care services and vulnerable people.
On funding, he told The Yorkshire Post: “The settlement this year, Robert (Jenrick, Communities Secretary) is right to say it’s a huge year-on-year increase, four per cent in real terms, that is the largest for a decade, it comes on top of a settlement that I did last year, which was also one of the largest increases in a very long time. So it shows an absolute turning of the corner in terms of local government investment in local government services.”
But he admitted there is an issue with social care, as councils await a long-promised social care Green Paper and there was little mention in the Budget of the sector.
Mr Sunak said: “With social care, particularly we committed an extra billion pounds of cash grant to local authorities that’s starting this year, that money will be sustained, that’s a significant investment that deals with the immediate pressures in the system, but there are long-term demographic pressures on the social care system.
“That’s why we’re committed to reforming it in the long-term and when we get to the spending review in the middle of the year, that’s another chance for us to have a look at it.”