Councils warn of ?13bn funding gap by 2020 due to cuts and rising social care costs

[super jumbe]

Local authorities in England have warned that a ?13 billion funding gap means council tax bills could rise dramatically by the end of the decade.

New powers will allow local authorities to raise council tax by 2 per cent - a potential rise of almost ?200 a family - but even then, councils say, they will be unable to make up the difference.

The shortfall is driven by cuts in grants from Whitehall, and by the escalating cost of adult social care, which is predicted to outstrip available funding by ?2.9 billion by 2020, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

Even taking advantage of the full surcharge, under powers announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his spending review, councils will still only bring in just ?1.6 billion more by 2020.

That would be at a cost of ?96 a year to the average Band D council tax payer.

On top of the expected 1.99% annual rise in core council tax, the average Band D bills could soar by ?195 a household by the end of the decade and still not close the hole in budgets, according to the LGA.


Councils say the escalating cost of adult social care will add substantially to the shortfall Credit: PA

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-11-29/councils-warn-of-13bn-funding-gap-by-2020-due-to-cuts-and-rising-social-care-costs/

[super jumbe]

ffs where are we going to get 200 a month, what happens to the N/I and Tax money we pay on our wages every week? I can only see bailiffs van out side every poor house!!!

[GastonJ]

DOesn't really matter. At the end of the day you'll pay it, and continue to pay more in taxation, whether direct or indirect. The problems aren't going away, they're just being shifted around so that the government itself can say it's lowering taxation. Aren't they a nice bunch

[DOUGALMCD]

As a person who covers most of his city on a weekly basis I can see where they don't want to spend money and where they waste a fortune {millions} Apply that up and down the country.They don't want to save because there is so much money available also there are too many fools taking a wage out of a system and aren't capable of delivering results for joe public. Too many people in all walks of life do not have standards any more and this ends up being detrimental to society as they are all out for themselves. Lies and fear is what the future generation get what hope is there. To sort a problem out you address it get it running smoothly and go onto next one but if you have fools who patch problems short term you end up in chaos. The systems are breaking because of the inadequacies of the so called educated buffoons that run them only wanting rewarded for their failures.

[Meat-Head]

Yet here we have lotto 6.2 million to one person.
then another country have a problem open wallet!

[ascouser]

I’m alright jack mentality, roads are crumbling, health service and education dire, one system for the wealthily and the rest who actually pay for and fund the education and health service get the dregs, too many sucking money out of the system incapable of doing the job when it comes to it, when get found out manage to get a fat payoff and fat pension to reward their failure, too many retired chief constables, generals and the like who served the country over a tax funded dining table with a fat tax payer funded pensions living the life of riley whilst for the worker the goalposts keep getting moved, house prices artificially inflated by the so called landlords with the help of the estate agents and banks and nothing done by the government to stop it, something to do with MPs having numerous houses that they let out to prop up their meagre salaries and expenses I presume. Another way of keeping the workers in their place, Ex soldiers who did serve their country sleeping rough on the streets with the bankers stepping over them on their way to another million pound bonus on top of their already inflated salaries. This government is Robin Hood in reverse, robbing the poorest and feeding it to the wealthy, just a sign of the times, greed is the order of the day, I’m all right jack, f*** the rest of you.