Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 28 December 2016 (HL4037) and the variation in yield revealed, what assessment they have made of the implications of the variation in yields for the NHS locally; and whether they remain committed to social care precept increases as a basis for funding adult social care on a sustainable basis.

No assessment has been made of the implication of the variation in yields for the NHS locally; this is a tax raised and managed by local government, to be spent on adult social care. Our policy on the social care precept has been set until 2019-20. No decision has been made about the policy after 2020.

The government has taken several steps during this Parliament to help secure a strong and sustainable social care system, including an additional £2 billion of funding announced at Budget to support adult social care in the short term. Taken all together, councils have access to £9.25 billion more dedicated funding for social care over the next three years, as a result of measures introduced by the government since 2015. In the longer term, the government is committed to establishing a fair and more sustainable basis for adult social care, in the face of future demographic challenges, and proposals to put the system on a more secure and sustainable long term footing will be set out in a green paper.