Peter Kyle
Main Page: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Greg Clark
The benefit for Northumberland is twofold. First, there is additional funding from the rural services delivery grant and the transitional grant that I mentioned, both of which are important and will be welcomed by people in Northumberland. Secondly, the review of the cost of delivering services in rural areas and the increased demands there is something for which my hon. Friend’s constituents and councillors called, so it is right that we should get on with that straightaway.
Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)
The recent report by ResPublica said that 37,000 elderly people who were dependent on statutory funding for residential care were at risk of losing their places and becoming homeless because of the rise in the minimum wage and cuts to local council funding. Areas such as mine which, for the benefit of the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State is Hove in Sussex, will do reasonably out of the precept because of the high tax base, but other areas with a low tax base, such as the north-east, will suffer very badly, and they have the highest rates of dependency on statutory funding for adult social care. Will the Secretary of State look again at the funding formula and make sure that areas that most need funding get it?
Greg Clark
I have just said to the House that I intend to look again at the funding formula to make sure that areas with the highest costs and pressure are funded accordingly.