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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the estimated cost to the public purse as a result of the introduction of the National Living Wage for social care workers in each of the seven authorities in the Northeast Local Economic Partnership area in the next financial year.

No such estimate has been made. The Spending Review took account of the costs of implementing the National Living Wage and set out a sustainable basis for local authorities to discharge their functions. The Government outlined a package of support, providing up to £3.5 billion a year by 2019-20, to ensure councils are able to support some of their older and most vulnerable residents.