Lord Warner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the allocations for the Department for Communities and Local Government DEL in Table 2.17 on page 100 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 relates to adult social care in each year 2016–17 to 2019–20 inclusive; how those proportions compare with that for the baseline year of 2015–16; and what increases for adult social care are included in the locally financed expenditure for each year in that Table on the assumption of two per cent precept increase for adult social care in cash terms, at the 2015–16 baseline prices, and as a proportion of total local authority expenditure.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The Government is clear that decisions on how money should be spent in the local area are best made by local authorities. Local Government spending power is therefore not ringfenced. This allows local authorities the freedom to prioritise and make their own decisions on spending. Table 2.17 on page 100 of the Spending Review shows a cash terms increase in local authority spending. This includes a £1.5 billion grant especially for social care within Local Government DEL and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s assessment of the increase likely to be raised through the social care precept within Locally Financed Expenditure.
