Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the increases to employers' national insurance contributions from 1 April 2016 on the future financial viability of social care providers.

The 2015 Spending Review took account of increases to employers' national insurance contributions, and set out a sustainable basis for local authorities to discharge their functions such as the commissioning of care from social care providers. The changes we announced alongside the local government settlement on 15 December brings the total dedicated funding for adult social care to £7.6 billion over the four years of the settlement 2016-20, enabling councils to tackle the pressures of adult social care and support their older and most vulnerable residents.