Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Leveling Up, said on the 19th of December 2022 that an over £60 billion package will be made available to councils in England for the next fiscal year. This was done to ensure that councils can continue to provide essential frontline services.
As the government continues to stand behind councils and public services in the face of financial difficulties, the settlement means that councils throughout England will benefit from an additional £5 billion. This represents a 9% increase on the settlement that was reached the previous year.
Before any local choices are made regarding the council tax, the agreement for the next year includes a one-time Funding Guarantee that ensures every council in England will experience at least a 3% rise in core spending power. In addition to this, the government has just confirmed a new scheme that will provide councils with a total of one hundred million pounds to protect the most vulnerable households from increases in council tax. This fulfills the manifesto commitment to protect local taxpayers from increases that are excessive.
In addition, social care is being prioritized, and the government has committed £2 billion in additional grant funding for social care services for children and adults for the fiscal year 2023–2024. In addition, the National Health Service (NHS) in England would get £300 million to help increase capacity by streamlining the process of discharging patients.
The government has provided greater certainty up to 2024/25, defining funding over the following two years, which will enable town halls to plan forward with confidence after listening to councils' feedback and offering greater certainty up to that point.
Comments
Post a Comment