Councils forced to hike parking charges and other fees to fund social care deficits, expert says
Councils have been forced to significantly increase parking charges and other fees to cover social care costs, an expert has said.
The Local Government Association’s Coun David Fothergill told MPs yesterday that local authorities were also having to take money out of areas such as rights of way and planning to cover funding shortfalls.
Coun Fothergill was giving evidence in Parliament yesterday as part of the Health and Social Care select committee’s inquiry into the cost of inaction in adult social care.
Sir Keir Starmer has announced an independent commission, led by Baroness Louise Casey, will begin in April, but the Government confirmed that a second phase, making long-term recommendations, might not report until 2028.
In the meantime, both council-run and private providers are set to be hit by the employer National Insurance contribution hike and the rise in the national living wage next month.
The Liberal Democrats have urged the Treasury to exempt health and social care services from this, saying it will add a tax bill to GPs and other services of £1.2bn over the next five years.
Coun Fothergill told MPs: “Money is having to be taken out of valuable services to fund social care - such as rights of way maintenance and registration, planning, community cohesion.
“We can only raise money in council tax, business rates and we can influence it through fees and charges.
“A lot of councils are putting up their fees and charges quite dramatically, because that’s only one of few ways we can fund the other services.”
Last year, North Yorkshire Council increased its parking charges by 20 per cent, while in York proposed hikes to tickets in council-run car parks could make some stays more expensive than paying a fixed penalty notice.
North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of resources Gary Fielding recently told The Yorkshire Post that the local authority has “real pressures” in adult social care and children’s services.
Giving evidence to the committee, Melanie Williams, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, a group for those working in social care, said the Government’s increase in the social care grant only covers 25 per cent of the cost pressures.
Coun Fothergill added: “More and more funding is now expected through council tax as opposed to directly from local government, and therefore it heavily relies on local authorities to increase their council tax.”
At the same time, more and more councils are getting close to bankruptcy, which the LGA expert said was “mostly driven by social care pressures”.
Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon told The Yorkshire Post: “We need wider wholesale reform to adult social care and social care in the broadest terms, but in the meantime we need to stop it collapsing with spiralling costs.
“It’s been kicked down the road for so long, and now the new Government is sticking the boot in.
“If the system does collapse, it’s going to be real people’s lives on the line.
“It’s about making sure some of the most vulnerable people have dignity in their lives, whether through old age or through disability.
“The current system is broken, the current system is failing people and we need the Government to be bold and tackle this crisis head on.”
The Department for Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.