Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the transfer of business rates to local authorities will provide any scope for improving the funding of local authority adult social care services before the financial year 2020–21.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
By the end of the Parliament, local government will retain 100 per cent of taxes raised locally, giving councils control of around an additional £12.5 billion of business rates to spend on local services as they see fit, including on Adult Social Care. To ensure the reforms are fiscally neutral, new responsibilities will be devolved to local authorities. We recently conducted a consultation on our approach to the implementation of 100 per cent Business Rates Retention, which received over 450 responses. My officials are currently considering all responses and we will publish a summary of the responses and our proposals for the broad way forward in due course.
In the meantime, we will continue close collaboration with local government in taking this work forward, including through the Business Rates Retention Steering Group, which is jointly chaired by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The Steering Group was established to consider the mechanisms needed to set up and run the new business rates system, as well as the timetable and implementation of the reforms. It oversees the work of a set of technical working groups, each looking at particular aspects of the reforms. The Group meets on a regular basis and has done so on 7 occasions since April 2016. All papers for meetings are published here: http://www.local.gov.uk/business-rates
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, assuming current prices and that all English local authorities with adult social care provisions make two per cent increases in the council tax precept, how much will be raised in total for adult social care in England (1) in the first year of operation, and (2) for all years of operation up to and including the financial year 2019–20.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The social care precept created in the 2015 Spending Review works by giving local authorities the flexibility to raise council tax in their area by up to 2 per cent above the existing threshold. If all local authorities used this to its maximum effect it could help raise nearly £2 billion a year by 2019-20. In 2016-17 144 out of 152 (95 per cent) adult social care authorities took up the precept raising £382 million extra for social care this year. The core spending power tables published alongside the Local Government Finance Settlement provide set out estimates of how much each council might raise in later years, and an explanatory note sets out the assumptions that these are based on.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities in England with responsibilities for adult social care will not use, in the financial year 2016–17, their power to increase their council tax precept by 2 per cent to pay for such care services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Eight social care authorities chose not to use the adult social care precept in 2016-17. They were: Stoke-on-Trent and 7 London Boroughs (City, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Merton).
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3563), what provision was made in the 2015 Spending Review in the Department for Communities and Local Government allocation for local authorities in 2016–17, and in each subsequent year, for the introduction of the National Living Wage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Spending Review decisions took the National Living Wage into account along with a range of other financial and economic factors. I refer the noble Lord to the provisional local government finance settlement, published on 17 December, which builds on the Spending Review outcome and also took account of pressures on adult social care. Policies to provide funding for social care include:
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the expenditure of each local authority with adult and children's social care functions (1) in total, (2) on adult social care, and (3) on children's social care, and what are (2) and (3) as a percentage of (1), in financial years 2010–11 to 2014–15 inclusive; and what are their forecasts for the same expenditure and percentages for 2015–16.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Data on the expenditure on adult and children's social care functions (1) in total, (2) on adult social care, and (3) on children's social care, in financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15 inclusive; and their forecasts for the same expenditure for 2015-16 by local authorities are published online in the Revenue Outturn Social Care and Public Health Services (RO3), and the Revenue Account (RA) budget forecast which are available at the following link:
http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing
The most recent revenue forms and guidance notes are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-government-finance-miscellaneous-forms#revenue-forms
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional income for spending on adult care will be available to each authority with adult social care functions if each of those authorities increases their precept by two per cent in each year from 2016–17 to 2019–20 inclusive, with no change to their baseline forecast spend for 2015–16.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government announced on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 2238-2241, that Local Authorities with social care responsibilities will be able to increase their council tax by up to 2% above the core referendum principles of 2% (4% in total) which is expected to raise an extra £2billion by 2019/20. A breakdown of the £2billion, by how much individual local authorities could raise, has been made and can be viewed at the following link or in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their commitment to consult on 100 per cent retention of business rates by local authorities by the end of this Parliament, what additional resources would be available to each local authority with adult social care functions if they had been able to keep all the business rates collected in their area in 2014–15, and what proportion of their total expenditure that business rate retention amounted to.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government intends to move to 100 percent business rates retention in England by the end of this Parliament. We have confirmed that as part of the new system there will continue to be redistribution of local tax revenue between authorities and protections in place for authorities that see their business rates income fall significantly. Over the coming months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme. Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas or authorities.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the additional costs to local authority budgets for adult social care incurred owing to payment of the national living wage will be regarded as a new burden on local authorities; and whether they plan to provide for any such additional costs in the annual local government financial settlement for 2016–17 and subsequent financial years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The new burdens doctrine does not apply to policies which apply the same rules to local authorities and to private sector bodies, unless these have a disproportionate effect on local government. The impact on local government of the introduction of the National Living Wage will be considered during the Spending Review as part of an overall assessment of spending pressures.