Burnham Does Not Rule Out Tax Rises to Fix Social Care
The prime minister called successive governments' failure to fix social care a major dereliction of public duty, and said existing budgets must be squeezed before tax rises are considered.
Andy Burnham has declined to rule out tax rises to pay for reform of adult social care in England, while insisting that existing budgets must be examined first, the BBC reported.
He described the failure of successive governments to address the crisis as a "major dereliction of public duty", saying there would be "difficult decisions" on funding but that he was determined to "get it right."
What the plans contain
The proposals centre on a new national care service, with higher pay and improved training for care workers, and closer integration between social care and the NHS.
Burnham also announced that a review of social care led by Baroness Casey, the veteran Whitehall troubleshooter, would be published next summer rather than in 2028 — pulling the timetable forward by more than two years.
Budgets before taxes
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Burnham said his first priority was extracting more from money already allocated rather than asking for more.
"I think we owe it to the public before we talk about tax rises," he said. "You first have to look the public in the eye and say 'Are we doing everything we can do from within what we've got?'"
He said the commitments on pay and training for the social care workforce "will be fully funded", drawing a distinction between measures already costed and the wider reform programme whose funding remains open.
That sequencing leaves the central question unresolved. Bringing the Casey review forward accelerates the diagnosis, but the decision on how to pay for what it recommends has been deferred rather than answered.
A personal argument
Burnham framed the case in personal terms during what the BBC described as an emotional speech, praising those caring for his father, who has Alzheimer's, and saying he wanted to deliver changes that would help "my dad and the millions like him".
The approach reflects how far the debate has shifted from an abstract funding argument toward the experience of families managing care day to day — including the prospect, which Burnham has said he wants to end, of people selling their homes to pay for it.
Reporting basis: BBC News.
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