Sunak dodges Tory revolt on council cash crisis

Rishi Sunak sidestepped another Tory rebellion this afternoon with the announcement of an extra £500 million in funding for councils in England. A group of more than 40 Conservative MPs had joined colleagues from other parties to warn of a crisis in local authority funding that was threatening even deeper cuts to services and council tax hikes in an election year. In a written ministerial statement, Michael Gove said this extra money, which is to cover rising costs in adult and children’s social care, was coming because ‘the government has also listened to the sector and to the issues raised by members of this house’. The Levelling Up Secretary wrote that the the funding will reduce pressures ‘on other areas such as children’s services such as home to school transport, where we recognise there has been a significant increase in pressures for special educational needs and disability services.’ 

This will come as a relief to the MPs who were pushing for more funding, though of course it isn’t close to what local government leaders have been saying they need.