London Councils: Care funding gap '£907m by 2018' - BBC News

8 January 2013 Last updated at 23:18 ET

The funding gap for providing adult social care in London will total an estimated £907m within five years, a report has said.

Think tank London Councils said the gap would result from budget cuts and increased spending on adult care.

The capital's councils currently spend a third of their budgets on adult social care services.

The number of Londoners aged 65 and over is predicted to rise by 50,000 by 2018, the report said.

The gap was estimated assuming a 5% cut in local authority budgets at the next spending review.

If the cut was as much as 15%, the gap would rise to £1.1bn.

The report, called A Case for Sustainable Funding for Adult Social Care, also warns that social care and waste collection could need more than 60% of all local authority funding by 2020.

'Active lives'

It said the only way to fully bridge the gap is to change the levels of funding allocated from government or through reforming how adult social care is funded.

Ravi Govindia, London Councils' executive member for adult services, said: "We want Londoners to lead fit and active lives and stay healthy well into old age, but if people do need support, affordable social care services need to be available for them."

Age UK said that of the two million older people in England with care-related needs, nearly 800,000 receive no support from public or private sector agencies.

London Councils is urging the government to help tackle the problem in the capital.

'Red tape'

A 2011 report by economist Andrew Dilnot recommended setting a limit between £25,000 and £50,000 to stop pensioners being forced to sell their homes to cover costs.

Mr Govindia said: "We are calling on the government to decide quickly how to implement the Dilnot recommendations, remove some of the red tape which would make providing adult social care services more efficient and recognise that help will be needed to fill the funding gap as our population ages and needs more care."

London Councils is a cross-party organisation funded and run by the 32 London boroughs, the City of London, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.