Andy Burnham has not ruled out tax rises to fund social care reform, but insists that existing inefficiencies must be addressed first. Responding to a question from ITV's Rebecca Barry, the Greater Manchester mayor argued that more can be achieved within current budgets before considering additional taxation.
Existing resources can do more
“I think more is possible from within existing resources. And the things that I’ve talked about today, particularly around the workforce, will be fully funded. I think it is possible from existing budgets to do much more,” Burnham said.
He highlighted the financial waste caused by a lack of preventative care, noting that an estimated £2.5bn a year is lost to the NHS due to unnecessary hospital admissions from social care settings, followed by long stays when patients are medically fit to leave but cannot because care is unavailable. “If you add all of it up, you are talking several billion pounds a year is lost from the lack of a preventative front-end social care service that’s well supported,” he added.
Difficult decisions on tax
Burnham stated that these problems need to be tackled “before we talk about tax rises”. However, he acknowledged that full reform may require difficult choices. “I think Louise [Casey – see 10.18am] indicated some of what we would want in the fullest sense will require difficult decisions,” he said.
“But we will be honest with people about those. We will put them before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people’s consent,” Burnham concluded.
