South London and Surrey will receive more than £95million over the next three years to fund adult social care following the Chancellor’s Spring Budget announcement.

Councils across the region are set to be given £40,75m in 2017/18 and a further £35,2m and £19,2m in 2018/19 and 2019/20, respectively.

Adult social care funding breakdown

Wandsworth Times:

Philip Hammond pledged an extra £2billion for local authorities across the country as he delivered the budget to the House of Commons on Wednesday, March 8.

Adult social care delivers services for elderly people who have disabilities, mental health problems, or general frailty.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) said the budget did ‘nothing to address the gaping hole in the NHS’s finances.

Dr Mark Porter, council chairman of the BMA, said: “This budget does nothing to address the gaping hole in NHS finances. There is a £30bn gap to fill and we should be increasing the UK’s health spending by at least £10.3bn to match that of other leading European economies.

“The NHS and social care are at breaking point and have been failed by party politics for too long. We need politicians from all sides to come together to agree a long-term solution to the challenges facing health and social care.

“We have a crisis in social care happening right now, so any funding to help provide the care patients so clearly need is a help. Failures within the social care system hugely affect an already stretched, overworked and underfunded NHS.

“Most NHS trust finance directors have said that cuts in local authority social care budgets are adversely affecting NHS services. For doctors to look after patients well, social care needs to be well-funded and adequately staffed.”

Richmond Council will receive the least amount of funding compared when compared to nearby authorities.

Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, Richmond Council deputy leader, said: “We are an ageing borough. Our highest spend is on social care. It pays for services for our most elderly and vulnerable residents. As our borough ages, so our social care costs rise.

“For years we have been campaigning to the Government for a fairer deal for Richmond. We have already introduced the social care precept into the Council Tax for next year. But, this isn’t filling the funding gap. It is just delaying it for the future.

“By 2019 Richmond Council will have lost 66 per cent of the Government funding it received in 2015/16. Therefore we need to save over £30m by 2019/20. There is a limit to how much our residents can foot the escalating social care bill.”