High inflation and increasing demand for adult social care are some of the issues that have put council budgets across England under pressure in the last year. Following representations from the Leaders and Chief Executives from Cotswolds and Stroud District Council, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, joined with a number of other MPs to lobby ministers to consider the concerns raised by local authorities.  

Today, Michael Gove MP Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, made a statement that the Government has listened to these concerns and will be providing additional measures for local authorities worth £600 million. This will include £500 million new funding through the Social Care Grant for those councils with adult and children’s social care responsibility.

With this new funding in place, local governments in England will have an increased Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion next year, taking the total to over £64 bn. This money is expected to be used by local authorities to deliver frontline services and will ensure they can deliver good levels of services efficiently, maximising value for money.

Commenting on the announcement, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said:

“I am delighted that following my meeting with the Minister for Local Government, Simon Hoare MP, that he has listened to the concerns I raised regarding the Local Government Finance Settlement. In particular, the settlement has been increased by £600m with £500m going to social care. The funding guarantee increased from 3% to 4% enabling core spending for Local Authorities to increase by £4bn from last year to £64bn.

“The Rural delivery grant will increase by £15m and there will be a provision of £3m for Local Authorities like Stroud struggling with increased levies from Internal Drainage boards I know all Councils will welcome this extra money because inflation has dropped.”