During a Westminster panel the morning after the budget, speakers warned pressures on social care and the NHS could intensify without a clear reform plan.
Damian Green, the former deputy prime minister, said the decision to isolate social care from the budget ‘spoke volumes about the government’s priorities’. He argued that, despite escalating need, social care had once again been overlooked.
‘If there had been any good news for the sector, the chancellor would have been trumpeting it,’ Green said, describing care as the UK’s ‘silent public service’.
The event, hosted by Bridgehead Communications, brought together more than 50 providers, investors and policymakers to assess how the budget might affect the wider health and care landscape.
Panel chair, William Walter, highlighted a series of rising operational pressures. ‘Employer NICs – up. National Living Wage – up. Local authority borrowing – up. Council taxes – up. Property taxes – up. Saving taxes – up. Inheritance taxes – up. Across the board, costs are rising, squeezing care providers and self-funders alike.’
In addition, speakers said growing tax and staffing costs risked limiting capacity in social care, with direct consequences for NHS flow and hospital discharge. They cited tax changes affecting vehicles used by rural domiciliary care providers, higher property levies on homes valued above £2m and the latest minimum wage rise.
Clare Connell argued the budget echoed approaches from the 1970s. She said: ‘This budget reads as though Rachel Reeves and her treasury mandarins have pulled down a well-thumbed playbook from the 1970s…Despite all of this, Rachel Reeves, in her infinite wisdom, appears determined to revisit both mistakes at once.’
Investors, including Andrea Auteri, warned unpredictable policy undermines long-term confidence, noting that ‘global capital has a choice’ and that the UK is ‘always thinking six months ahead’.
Workforce issues were also central to the discussion, with attendees pointing to migration policy changes, limited data and competition from better-paid sectors as factors driving shortages.
Green said resolving system-wide strain would require national oversight and funding. He remarked: ‘In the the long run it is impossible to fund adult social care through local authorities…we should abolish the fiction and say that this is a national service funded nationally.’
In similar vein, Walter said the discussion underscored the need for coordinated reform, adding: ‘It is vital that we build a credible vision for care.’
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