Care Homes: England

Andrea Jenkyns Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Joan Ryan (Enfield North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman). I echo what he said about some of the excellent care that we see in care homes.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Peter Kyle) on securing an important and timely debate. He highlighted many of the key concerns of care providers in the UK. One is the current funding crisis in social care. Over the past five years we have seen social care budgets across the country cut by almost 11%. In Enfield, the local authority has had to deliver net savings in its adult social care budget of 16% over the past four years, and by 2019, the savings requirement that the council will need to initiate will further reduce the budget by £19.8 million, from £80.8 million this year to £61 million. That is equivalent to another 25% reduction in the net budget. How do the Government seriously expect local authorities such as Enfield to cope with a cut of that level?

[Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con)]

I have been a councillor, so I know that budgets have been quite tight in local authorities over the years. A care home in my constituency, Siegen Manor, is possibly due to close. Does the right hon. Lady agree that we need to look at the way councils spend money? In my new city council, there is a lot of wastage. We need to look at how councils spend their money, because I could give a lot of examples of how they could—

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order. I call Joan Ryan.