The implementation of adult social care reforms would ‘destroy’ the council and must be delayed, Wokingham Borough Council’s leader has said. 

Representative for Hawkedon ward in Lower Earley and leader of the council, Clive Jones, said the government’s proposals would cost the council an additional £25m and risk bankruptcy. 

The plans include imposing an £86,000 cap on what families would pay towards the cost of care, making the means testing for care more generous and getting councils to pay care providers a ‘fair cost’. 

“But then who would pick up the bill for your residential care? Currently the government are expecting local councils to do that,” Cllr Jones explained. 

READ MORE: Wokingham Council pay compensation after Optalis fault

According to council’s finance officers, the increased costs would mean adult social care accounted for 17 per cent of the local authority’s entire annual budget.  

Cllr Jones accepts that the sector “desperately needs reforming” and supports the aims of the government’s proposals but claims it has got the funding “badly wrong”. 

He has written to Health Secretary Stephen Barkley setting out the potential impact and calling for the changes to be delayed. 

“The proposed changes just cannot work because they would bankrupt local councils who are the people who provide the care,” he said. 

READ MORE: Crowthorne Indian restaurant to be replaced with eight flats

Local authorities up and down the country are facing staffing and funding difficulties to meet the requirements for adult social care. A recent Skills for Care report on the state of the sector highlighted issues with recruitment, retention and pay. 

The council’s executive member for adult social care, Cllr David Hare, said the hard work and dedication of staff is “propping up a broken system”. 

“For the sake of the vulnerable adults in our community, we are all urging the government to listen to all these councils who are calling for a radical rethink,” he added. 

It has also been suggested that the autumn budget being delivered on Thursday will reveal government plans to lift the ‘referendum cap’ on raising council tax – which currently stands at 2.99 per cent – to 4.99 per cent. 

READ MORE: Five Guys plans for Bracknell's The Lexicon outlet withdrawn

Cllr Jones believes this is an attempt by the government to make local authorities responsible for increasing the costs for residents to deliver national reforms. 

“They are going to be saying; sorry guy’s it’s not us, this was done by your local council. Even if we could increase the council tax to ten percent, it still wouldn’t cover that £25m black hole. 

“If it was to go ahead and we had to find £25m, we would have to cut just about everything else that we provide. We wouldn’t be able to deliver any other services other than our statutory education services and adult social care.”