Local authorities across the UK have been allowed by central governement to make further increases in council tax, of 3% a year, in order to pay for social care.

The proposed

Responding to this announcement, Ravi Subramanian, UNISON West Midlands Regional Secretary, said: “Government cuts to council budgets helped cause the crisis in social care. Yet rather than own up and take responsibility, ministers are simply passing the buck to local councils.

“Social care needs a substantial injection of new cash – targeted at poorer areas of the country – and measures to ensure dignity is at the heart of the system for care users and workers.

“Raising council tax bills allows authorities in affluent areas to generate more cash than poorer ones – where the need is greatest. Similarly ordinary families, struggling to make ends meet, can ill afford a hike in their council tax bills.

“The government should be using the growing surplus of centrally-collected business rates to ease the pressure on councils, not encouraging them to shift the care burden onto hard pressed local taxpayers and create an unfair postcode lottery of care.”