Communities Secretary Michael Gove confirmed local authorities will receive a tranche of £500 million in emergency funding for social care after councils warned funding pressures could force them into bankruptcy.
Mr Gove said the money would enable councils to provide “crucial social care services for their local communities, particularly children”.
“By making progress on the government’s plan to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt, we now can provide this extra funding to councils to continue to provide vital services to their communities,” he said.
The move comes after some 40 Conservative MPs, including East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton, Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell and Hastings and Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart, called for more funding for councils in England to avoid deep cuts to services.
It has not yet been announced how much each council in Sussex will receive.
Councillor Jacob Taylor, deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council and finance lead, said that, while it was welcome to see the government provide more funding, the city would likely receive a “relatively small amount”.
He said: “Whilst it is good to see that Michael Gove is finally acknowledging the existential crisis in local government funding, it is ludicrously late in the fiscal calendar, and indicative of a government lurching from one crisis response to the next.
“Most councils have already set draft budgets – why wasn’t this settlement communicated in the autumn to give councils a chance to plan properly? This from the party who used to claim they were the stewards of prudent financial management.
“We await the final details in the settlement but for Brighton and Hove this is likely to be a relatively small amount that can be reduced from the £33 million budget gap we currently face.
“In short – this will be far too little and comically too late.”
Brighton and Hove City Council will discuss its budget proposals next month.
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