The government is set to allow councils to raise council tax by 6 per cent over the next two years to boost funding for social care, HSJ’s sister title Local Government Chronicle has reported.

The local government settlement, being announced tomorrow, is set to include a measure to allow councils to raise the social care precept, which is currently set at 2 per cent above the referendum threshold of 1.99 per cent, to 3 per cent this year and next. However, they will no longer be able to apply a precept in the final year of this parliament.

The Local Government Association has said the social care funding gap will reach £2.6bn by the end of this parliament.

A 1 per cent annual increase in the precept is expected to raise £200m extra a year, on top of the £370m raised by the existing social care precept.

LGA chair Gary Porter yesterday told LGC that the social care funding gap could not be addressed by increasing the council tax precept alone as there were wide variations in the amount of money that councils could generate across the country.

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