I had a meeting with the new Local government Minister yesterday, Rishi Sunak.
I explained the poor deal both Councils received when social care funding was reorganised, and asked that DCLG and the Health department considered it again as part of their current review of social care finance. The Minister reminded me that the Councils should respond to the current consultation which ends in March, and was aware of the way the Councils lost out through the 2014 Care Act changes.
I also raised the issue of negative rate support grant, where the Minister again said he was well aware of the difficulties. I have lobbied for no move into negative grant, as our Councils have similar needs to Councils that remain in receipt of grant.
The Minister reminded me that we are part of the Business rates retention pilot which should offer more money. I pointed out that we would want that to continue after the pilot year.
January 27, 2018
Seems like the Minister of Local Government is aware of the problems, at least that is what you are being told, but is waiting for consultation reply’s, which have yet a couple of months to run, and even much longer to tabulate and clarify
Yet another kick into the long grass of a known problem because a Minister wants to consult, consult, and consult again.
I am all for doing proper research, but why for goodness sake does it take so long, if a company took this long to make decisions it would have gone bust in the meantime.
Will this Minister still be in place when the recommendations are eventually put forward to that position, and how long will it take after that to be government policy, or not ?