Stark adult care cash warning from Tory council

North Yorkshire County Council leader Carl Les admitted the authority has “grave concerns” about the impact of the comprehensive spending review (CSR) due to be published on Wednesday.

He urged his Conservative colleague to protect funding for adult social care and to provide money for the additional school places the county needs.

Coun Les said: “Difficult decisions lie ahead and we have grave concerns about the outcome of the CSR.

“For this reason we will be calling on Government to help us with adult social care and we will also be writing to our MPs in the coming months to support us in lobbying for additional school places funding.

“It does not make any sense for the health budget to be protected but not adult social care. The two systems need to work together efficiently if people, and especially the elderly, are to be cared for effectively.

“But that cannot happen if the adult social care budget continues to be cut.”

Councils have been warning for some time that they face a crisis as demand for adult social care rises as local government budgets fall.

But the concerns raised by a large Conservative-run county will be harder for the Chancellor to easily ignore.

Mr Osborne has already revealed the the Department for Communities and Local Government is among a group of departments to have agreed cuts amounting to an average of eigh per cent a year over the next four years.