Social care set for £7m boost to meet rising costs
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is set to approve an extra £7m for adult social care services to help suppliers meet rising costs.
Care homes and providers - some of whom challenged the previous settlement at the High Court - have told the authority increases in National Insurance and the National Living Wage have pushed their costs up.
The council's previously suggested fee rises of 2-4% would typically increase to 5-7% under the revised plans for the coming year.
The proposal will be discussed by the authority's cabinet on 29 April.
In January, the High Court ordered the council to reconsider its 1.4% fee rise for the 2024-25 financial year, after Staffordshire Care Association challenged how the decision was reached.
Although the rise was later confirmed, council officers warned that "members should read this judgement in full" before considering this year's fees.
In a consultation in December and January, providers from different sectors told the council that staffing costs would rise by up to 10% because of changes announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October's budget.
The Labour-run authority has assessed those rises, along with general inflationary pressures, to come up with new rates for firms providing residential and at-home care.
Despite the council's own financial challenges, cabinet members have been warned they have to follow government guidance and maintain a "sustainable" care market.
The authority's budget for this year had initially allowed for a planned increase of about £6m for social care.
The report to councillors said that while an additional £1.1m would be provided centrally, the service would have to "actively work to reduce expenditure and mitigate the additional costs over the course of the financial year".
Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Council approves budget with 4.99% tax rise
Social care sector 'will struggle' to cover costs
Listen: All your questions answered about adult social care in Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
At last the ‘Iron Chancellor' has turned, but the cost could be fatal
While Rachel Reeves has often invoked the soviet nickname embraced by Baroness Thatcher, she has typically struggled to live up to the 'Iron Chancellor' moniker she craved. Where Thatcher declared 'the lady's not for turning', Reeves has more frequently been found flip-flopping. We now have details of the latest volte-face, and a rough value has been ascribed to the political capital Labour burnt during its first major fiscal event. The price of all goodwill afforded to a new government? £450m, or 0.05pc of the total tax take. Since the winter fuel payment was first scrapped for all pensioners except those in receipt of pension credit, we've been patiently expecting this about-turn, which doesn't scream confidence in government policy. At midday yesterday, HM Treasury confirmed that a new arbitrary figure had been laid down to determine the deserving/undeserving old, this time set at £35,000. Those below this line of personal income will be entitled to £200 per household (up to £300 if all residents are over 80), while those above it are not entitled to keep the money. Yes, that is a personal income allowance to judge a household payment. On £35,001 and live alone? Not a penny. Two of you on £35,000 for a total household income of £70,000? The full amount. One of you above and one below? The payment will be split, and the one earning above the threshold will have to pay theirs back. Will it rise in line with the triple lock? No clue. Where does £35,000 come from as a limit? Well it's less than average earnings and nowhere near any tax bracket, so answers on a postcard please. Will the Government ensure only those entitled to the benefit receive it? No. It will be paid to all and clawed back through PAYE or self-assessment tax returns. Sound complicated? It sure does – and complicated generally means expensive administration. High street accountancy firms will leap on the confusion, but I'm not sure this is the productivity boost Reeves dreamed of. So far, nobody has cobbled together any estimates for how much this system will cost HMRC to develop and implement, but it's not zero. Don't forget, the previous eligibility criterion of being a pension credit recipient has already sparked its own costs. According to former pensions minister, Sir Steve Webb, the flurry of new applicants has already added a £200m annual cost, reducing the benefit to Treasury coffers to just £250m, not £450m, before any admin costs are factored in. That's 0.03pc of the total tax take. He explained: 'These changes wipe out most of the extra revenue which the Government was expecting to get from the winter fuel payment policy. 'Not only has the Government knocked more than a billion pounds off the expected revenue but it has also had to find more than £200m per year extra because of the surge in pension credit claims. 'Overall, the amount raised looks tiny relative to the political damage which the whole episode has caused to the Government.' But it's not just political damage – in the immediate wake of the news, gilt yields rose. Certainly, some element of this is simply factoring in the lower revenues the Government can now expect, but more critically, it is shifting perceptions. The long shadow of Liz Truss's mini-Budget continues to haunt Labour, and they are likely to be undone by their own political spin. Reeves et al oversimplified what happened in September 2022 and tied their hands in the process. Changing policy is a natural part of government and waiting for the next Budget isn't always possible, but when you tell the nation (and markets) that it's fiscally irresponsible to do so, you cannot be surprised when eyebrows are raised. Reeves's Spring Statement already effectively broke her promise of one major fiscal event per year – yesterday's revelation has broken most of the others. The policy is not accompanied by an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast (although one is promised for the next Budget), and weren't we told the cut was necessary to fill the black hole? Before the changes, ING's James Smith, a developed market economist focused on the UK, had already predicted that Reeves would have no fiscal headroom – now she'll miss it by at least another £1.25bn. With the two-child benefit cap also likely to be axed, which will add another £3.5bn to the outgoings side of the balance sheet, not to mention the £17bn cost of boosting defence spending to 3pc, Reeves is more likely to have a sore neck than any headroom. But the Chancellor keeps painting herself into a corner – she has once again recommitted herself to not raising income tax, National Insurance or VAT. She has doubled down on her 'non-negotiable' fiscal rules and respect for the OBR, forcing her to fiddle with the margins every time the bond markets hiccup. We'll have to wait and see what happens with Wednesday's spending review, but something will have to give soon, and it's looking more likely than ever that it will be Reeves. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Rolls-Royce to build Britain's first mini nuclear reactors
Rolls-Royce will build the country's first mini nuclear power plants as part of a multibillion-pound effort to make Britain a world leader in the technology. The Derby-based engineering giant was on Tuesday confirmed as the sole winner of a design competition, beating rivals GE-Hitachi and Holtec International following a two-year selection process. It will now work with the Government on a programme to initially build three the first small modular reactors (SMRs) by the 2030s, with £2.5bn of funding pledged through 2029 and billions more expected beyond that once construction begins. Ministers said the decision showed they were 'backing Britain', with the majority of the supply chain expected to be based domestically. As a 'preferred' bidder, Rolls will now hold talks to negotiate a final contract with the Government. A location has yet to be announced but sites including Wylfa, in Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in Gloucestershire, are among those being considered. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, said the scheme would boost energy security and create thousands of jobs, as part of a new 'golden age of nuclear' that has also seen the Government pledge £14bn of new funding to the construction of Sizewell C. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, added: 'The UK is back where it belongs, taking the lead in the technologies of tomorrow with Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred partner for this journey. 'We're backing Britain with Great British Energy - Nuclear's ambition to ensure 70pc of supply chain products are British built, delivering our plan for change through more jobs and putting more money in people's pockets.' SMRs would in theory be faster to build than larger nuclear plants, such as Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, and come with smaller price tags – although they remain unproven commercially. Tuesday's announcement also confirmed cutbacks to the SMR programme, which The Telegraph previously revealed were being considered. The Government had earlier suggested that two or as many as three SMR manufacturers would be chosen to take designs forward, with nuclear industry insiders saying this would boost competition and ensure a 'backup' was available should the main winner run into trouble. But with the Treasury under pressure to find billions of pounds for other priorities such as the NHS and police forces, the scale of the programme now appears to have been trimmed back. Ministers also confirmed that Great British Nuclear, the quango set up to manage the new mini-nuclear programme, would be absorbed into Mr Miliband's publicly owned Great British Energy. Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: 'This is a very significant milestone for our business. 'It is a vote of confidence in our unique nuclear capabilities, which will be recognised by governments around the world.' Rolls has also been selected by the Czech government to build some of Europe's first SMRs in a joint venture with state energy firm CEZ. The decision brings to a close a process that was first promised by George Osborne, the former chancellor, in 2015 but did not begin until 2023 under the previous Conservative government. Rolls was widely viewed as the frontrunner in the process and had already been awarded £210m of taxpayer support in 2021 towards the development costs of its SMR technology. But in the past year, ministers have faced calls from Rolls boss Erginbilgic to push forward more quickly to ensure Britain retains 'first mover advantage'. The global SMR market is projected to be worth up to £500bn by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. Rolls is vying against companies including Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi to secure customers and set up supply chains. The company has long supplied the pressurised water reactors that power Royal Navy submarines but has more recently sought to develop SMRs and even smaller 'micro reactors' for commercial use as well. Its SMRs would be constructed from 'modules' that are built in factories and then transported to sites for assembly. The idea is meant to ensure that the plants can be produced efficiently at scale and more quickly than larger nuclear projects. As part of the SMR competition, the Government asked companies to explain how they would bring down costs over time. In the longer run, it is also hoped that the smaller price tags of SMRs will ensure they are more attractive to private investors, which have long viewed bigger plants as too expensive and risky to back without government support. Major technology companies including Google, Amazon and Facebook owner Meta are investing in potential SMR technologies, amid suggestions they could eventually be used to supply power-hungry data centres needed to develop artificial intelligence. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
BBC Presenter Shows Ed Miliband All The Times Ministers Defended The Winter Fuel Cut
Ed Miliband was shown all the times Labour ministers backed the cuts to winter fuel payments just a day after Rachel Reeves performed a humiliating U-turn on the policy. The chancellor was among those senior frontbenchers who went on BBC Breakfast last year to defend the controversial decision. On the programme this morning, energy secretary Miliband repeatedly refused to apologise to pensioners who missed out on the payment last year after Reeves took it off 10 million of them. She confirmed yesterday that 9 million more will get the money this winter after the income threshold to qualify for it was raised to £35,000. Presenter John Kay said: 'Millions of pensioners had a really anxious winter. They told us every morning in our inbox that they couldn't afford to put the heating on. Some told us that their health and their wellbeing was affected by losing the winter fuel payment. Will you now apologise for this mistake?' Dodging the question, Miliband replied: 'The chancellor took a decision last year when we came into office that she needed to stabilise the nation's finances, and the principal that we should pay the winter fuel payment to all pensioners wasn't correct. That's why she made the decision she did. 'Two things have happened since then: we've stabilised the nation's finances and we've heard that strength of feeling that you talk about and that's why she made the change she did. I think it's the right thing.' But Kay told him: 'Our viewers like it when politicians own mistakes and admit to mistakes, and they like it when politicians say sorry. Why won't the chancellor, why won't you this morning, just apologise – dead simple.' Miliband said: 'The chancellor is not going to apologise for a series of measures she took to stabilise the nation's finances when we came into office.' Kay hit back: 'Time and time again, you all told us it was not going to change. Let's just play a sample of clips we've got of various cabinet ministers telling us that there was going to be no alteration to this policy.' On July 30 last year, Reeves told the programme: 'The decisions I made on winter fuel payment are not decisions I wanted to make, they are not decisions I expected to make. But when confronted by a £22bn black hole, I had to act.' On September 5, deputy PM Angela Rayner said: 'We know this is a difficult choice, and we was left with very difficult circumstances because of the previous government and what they did.' Health secretary Wes Streeting said on September 12: 'We are not prepared to duck the difficult decisions and leave everyone paying a heavier price down the line. That was the Conservative way, it's not the Labour way.' And on July 31, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said: 'This isn't a change we wanted to make, this isn't a change we expected to make, we did it with a heavy heart. But we do think it is the right decision.' Bizarrely, Miliband then insisted the clips were 'absolutely consistent with that the chancellor announced yesterday'. An incredulous Kay replied: 'What, you're saying this is not a U-turn?' Miliband said: 'No, it obviously is a change on the threshold, but what I'm saying to you is these are decisions she sad she didn't want to make, and now she's got the room for manoeuvre to raise the threshold while sticking to the overall principal.' 'Time and time again you all told us it was not going to change?'On #BBCBreakfast Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was asked about the government's repeated defence of the decision to cut winter fuel allowance for most pensioners - before announcing a u-turn… — BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 10, 2025 Analysis: Rachel Reeves Has Been Left Humiliated By Winter Fuel U-Turn Revealed: Which Pensioners Will Get Winter Fuel Payments Again After Labour U-Turn Rachel Reeves Confirms More Pensioners Will Get Their Winter Fuel Payments This Year
