Adult Social Care: Challenge Procedures

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 19th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I will answer quickly to allow a final question, but yes, our anti-obesity strategy is very much about that.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

I am most grateful to my noble friend, who is a glutton for punishment. I wanted to follow up on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett. It is all very well saying that the money is coming from local government, but the problem is that the tax base in local authority areas does not reflect the demand in those areas. Therefore, there is unmet need where the need is often greatest, is there not?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I knew that was coming. As a former local authority deputy chair of finance, I very much understand the problem my noble friend describes. My Treasury colleague has gone, but we all agree that local authorities have a very important part to play in this. The mix between local and central funding is clearly something we need to work on.