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Councils in England are now spending almost two-thirds of their budgets on social care, and it’s costing them almost £4bn more than 10 years ago.

That leaves less room in the budget to pay for other services provided by local authorities, like bin collections, road maintenance and public parks. And it’s rural councils with the oldest populations which are being stretched most.

Councils that have made cuts say they are responding to a combination of pressures, including rising inflation, the sharp reduction in government grants since the 2010s, and the increasing demands of caring for an aging population.

Local authorities in England spent more than £30bn on social care in 2021/22, out of £49bn total spending on all services, excluding education. That’s an increase of almost £4bn, or 15%, since 2012, even after adjusting for inflation.

Meanwhile, spending on transport services has declined by £1.2bn, spending on culture and the environment has reduced by more than £1bn, and spending on housing has gone down by £300m in real terms.

See what your council spends on social care

Halton Council, in Cheshire, spends more than 80% of its total budget on social care, a massive increase from just 52% in 2012. The £92m they spent in 2021/22 is £20m higher in real terms than what they spent in 2011/12.

Over that period they have cut spending on street lighting by £1.7m – a huge two-thirds reduction – and road maintenance by £600,000, a 25% cut.

Many of the areas spending the least on social care – in some cases actually spending less than they were 10 years ago – were in London.

In Tower Hamlets, for example, they spent £13m less in real terms on social care in 2021/22 than they did in 2011/12, while spending about £130,000 more on road maintenance.

Why is this happening?

Over the past decade there has been a change to how councils are funded. The reduction of government grants, beginning in 2013/14, meant they needed to raise more funding directly.

There is a limit to how much councils can raise in council tax – capped at 5% a year – and not all councils raise it by the maximum amount.

‘The government have to take it more seriously’

Councillor Rob Moreton, an independent councillor in Cheshire East, told Sky News about his personal experiences of trying to get jobs done amid tight council budgets:

“I’ve been trying to get this road resurfaced for four years now. I just get constantly told there’s not the funding for it this year ‘We’ll try and get it on a scheme for the year after, no money available’.

“Social care is very important. But potholes are also important if it’s costing car drivers thousands of pounds in broken springs, punctured tyres, and everything else.

“It’s totally unacceptable. We need more funding from central government. In 2020 we got £19m, then it was reduced to £15m and this year is £17.3m. The government are now producing £200m nationally for councils, but for Cheshire East that’s £2.3m, which is less than the £5m they’ve cut from us in recent years – we’ve had a 41% cut.

“The government have to take it more seriously and start funding councils. They have lost touch with local councils.”

Councils also have legal obligations that they have to fulfil, which limits where they can make savings.

For example, they must provide social care to those young and old people who are eligible for it.

Who’s eligible for council-funded social care?

So if more people become eligible for social care – which happens naturally as the population ages – council costs start to rack up. This has left some councils with difficult financial decisions to make, particularly those with older populations in rural areas.

Areas where more than a quarter of the population are over 65, like Devon, Suffolk and Dorset, which were among the highest social care spenders in the map above, have seen their social care costs rise by more than 40% in real terms since 2012.

If councils are limited on how much more money they can bring in, and they need to spend more on social care, they are forced to make cuts elsewhere to make their budgets work.

Councillor Tim Oliver, chairman of the County Councils Network, told Sky News: “Over the last decade, councils in county areas have seen a significant decrease in government funding at a time when their elderly populations have increased dramatically, with the number of over 65s in those areas rising by 1.1m from 2011 to 2021. At the same time, demand for children’s services has also increased rapidly.

“As a result, those councils now spend 64% of their budgets on average on these two service areas, with councils having to balance their legal duties to care for elderly and young people eligible for care with the funding they receive.

“Increasingly, this has meant money has been re-routed from bus subsidies, libraries, and community health services to make up the shortfall elsewhere.”

Jackie Weaver, a former parish councillor who became temporarily famous in 2020 when she was told that she “had no authority” over a meeting of Handforth Parish Council, in Cheshire, in a popular social media video, told Sky News that a contraction in services at county and district council level mean that town and parish councils are having to fill the gap:

“All the kind of community stuff that is visible, that makes us feel good, doesn’t happen anymore. They don’t have any money to do it.

“What we are seeing is that town and parish councils are stepping forward and picking up the slack. Over the past 10 years they’re recognising that nobody’s going to do it for us. If we want an improved transport scheme in the town, or a neighbourhood plan, then we’ve got to step up and do it ourselves.”

We put our findings, and the responses from councils, to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. A government spokesperson said: “We are making an additional £5.1bn available for councils in England in the next financial year.

“We are also providing multi-year certainty to local government, outlining spending over the next two years to allow councils to plan ahead with confidence.”

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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UK

Four members of UK family die in crash on holiday in Portugal

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24 mins ago

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August 10, 2025

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Four members of UK family die in crash on holiday in Portugal

Four members of a UK family have died in a car crash while they were on holiday in Portugal.

Domingos Serrano, 55, Maria Serrano, 51, and their twin sons Domingos and Afonso, both 20, died when the car they were travelling in collided with another vehicle in Castro Verde, southern Portugal, according to the Municipal Council for Mourao.

Two others died in the crash – the 19-year-old girlfriend of one of the sons, and the 26-year-old driver of the other car, its statement added.

The Serrano family were living in Thetford, Norwich, but were not British nationals, Sky News understands.

They were travelling from Faro to Mourao for their “usual and deserved vacation”, according to the Mourao authorities, who declared two days of mourning.

In a statement, they said: “In the car there were four occupants, of Mouranese nature, and a young woman with affinity to the family.

“Residents in England, follow from Faro to Mourão, for the usual and deserved vacation.

“It is with great regret that the Municipality announces this information, offering its condolences to the families and friends of the victims.”

Read more from Sky News
Man dies after tractor driven into cars
Horse rider dies after falling at competition
Three arrested after two drive in crash

‘Massive void’

Thetford Town Youth Football Club paid tribute to the family in a Facebook post, confirming the twins played for the team.

“Thetford Town Football Club would like to pass on our sincere condolences to the Serrano family and the local Portuguese community after the recent tragedy while on holiday,” it read.

“Afonso and [Domingos] were both an integral part of our U18’s team in recent years, both brothers sadly passed away in Portugal with their parents and friends in a tragic car accident.

“The loss of this lovely family will leave a massive void in the local community.”

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UK

Amnesty International ‘deeply concerned’ as 474 arrests made at Palestine Action protest

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6 hours ago

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August 10, 2025

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Amnesty International 'deeply concerned' as 474 arrests made at Palestine Action protest

Amnesty International says it is “deeply concerning” that police made 474 arrests during a Palestine Action demonstration in London.

Metropolitan Police said 466 were detained under the Terrorism Act for showing support for a banned group.

Eight more people were arrested for other offences, including five for assaulting officers.

The Met said it was the most arrests it’s made related to a single operation in at least the past decade.

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

Organiser of the event, Defend Our Juries, earlier said up to 700 people were at the event in Parliament Square and claimed police were preparing for the “largest mass arrest in their history”.

The group said those arrested included former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, NHS workers, quakers and a blind wheelchair user.

Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said in a statement: “The protesters in Parliament Square were not inciting violence and it is entirely disproportionate to the point of absurdity to be treating them as terrorists.

“Instead of criminalising peaceful demonstrators, the government should be focusing on taking immediate and unequivocal action to put a stop to Israel’s genocide and ending any risk of UK complicity in it.”

The Met said a “significant number of people” at the event were seen “displaying placards expressing support for Palestine Action”.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organisation.

“Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.”

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Palestine Action supporters arrested at protest

Police said those arrested had been taken to processing points in Westminster and any whose details could be confirmed were bailed on condition they didn’t attend further Palestine Action support events.

Others whose details could not be verified, possibly because they refused to give them, were taken to custody suites across London.

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

The protests have put a strain on authorities’ capacity to cope.

Sky News understands senior leaders in the prison service, known as “Capacity Gold”, met today to discuss how to deal with the large number of arrests as the male prison estate is close to full.

It’s understood 800 inmates were moved out of the busiest jails in and around London beforehand.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Federation said: “Thinking of our colleagues and wishing all assaulted officers well. Remember there are no ‘extra’ police officers – just the same ones having their days off cancelled, having to work longer shifts and being moved from other areas. Officers are emotionally and physically exhausted.”

‘We felt compelled to speak out’

The first of the arrests began just before 1pm, when a man waving a placard that read “I support Palestine Action” was stopped by police, writes Gurpreet Narwan, reporting from Parliament Square.

Officers told him he was showing support for a terrorist organisation, searched him and ushered him away.

The action soon escalated. Among the people arrested today were a number of elderly people, a blind man in a wheelchair, and a teenager.

They were protesting peacefully, with a number of people pointedly seating themselves below statues of Mahatma Gandhi and the suffragette Millicent Fawcett.

They told Sky News that they were fully expecting to be arrested but that they felt compelled to speak out and defend the right to protest.

One protester said: “I don’t think I’m a criminal. That’s not the person I am.”

However, he said he was being guided by his faith and his conscience.

Things calmed down after a few hours but there was a heavy police presence well into the afternoon and early evening.

Read more: What does proscribing a group mean?

Legislation to ban Palestine Action came into force on 5 July, making it a criminal offence to show support for the organisation, carrying a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Defend Our Juries said earlier this week the protest would still go ahead, following several similar demonstrations since it was outlawed last month.

On Saturday, a spokesperson said: “Palestine Action and people holding cardboard signs present no danger to the public at large.”

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

Human rights advocates Amnesty International described the arrests of so many people under UK terrorism law as “deeply concerning”.

Another march organised by the Palestine Coalition, which is a separate group, set off from Russell Square and assembled on Whitehall.

The Met Police said one person had been arrested there for showing a placard in support of Palestine Action.

Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

Earlier this week, three people charged as a result of illegal Palestine Action activity were named.

Jeremy Shippam, 71, of West Sussex, Judit Murray, also 71, of Surrey, and Fiona Maclean, 53, of Hackney in east London, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 September.

The ban on Palestine Action faces a legal challenge in November after the High Court granted a full judicial review to Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori.

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UK

‘We will send you packing’: Govt vows to deport foreign criminals immediately after sentencing

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11 hours ago

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August 10, 2025

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'We will send you packing': Govt vows to deport foreign criminals immediately after sentencing

Foreign criminals will be deported from the UK immediately after they are sentenced, the justice secretary has said.

The law change proposed by Shabana Mahmood could save taxpayers an average of £54,000 a year per prison place.

The changes would apply to prisoners serving fixed-term “determinate” sentences.

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May: Inside one of Britain’s most overcrowded prisons

Authorities would also retain their power not to deport a criminal but instead keep them in custody – with examples including if an offender is planning further crimes against the UK’s interests or national security.

The justice secretary’s announcement goes further than a change to the law in June – expected to come into force in September – meaning prisoners face deportation 30% into their sentence rather than the current 50%.

The government will need parliament to greenlight its proposal to bring this down to 0%.

Foreign national offenders make up around 12% of the prison population.

More from Politics

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May: Male prison capacity running at 99%

Ms Mahmood said: “Our message is clear – if you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing.”

She added: “Deportations are up under this government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.”

Almost 5,200 foreign national offenders have been deported since July 2024, a 14% increase on the 12 months prior, according to the government.

Read more:
Inside one of Britain’s most overcrowded prisons
Prison system came ‘within days of collapse’
Prisoners to be moved to lower security jail

According to a Labour source, the previous Conservative government relied on prison transfer agreements with other countries to deport foreign national offenders, in deals which allow inmates to serve their custodial sentence in their “home” country.

This saw 945 prisoners sent to jails abroad between 2010 and 2023, equal to fewer than two criminals per week.

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July: Jenrick slams justice system shake-up

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “In Starmer’s topsy-turvy world, investors are fleeing the country in their droves while record numbers of violent and sexual offenders from abroad are put up in our prisons. It’s a farce.

“Yet again Starmer has refused to confront our broken human rights laws.

“He needs to grow a backbone and change them so we can actually deport these individuals.

“The safety of the British public is infinitely more important than the ‘rights’ of sick foreign criminals.

“If countries won’t take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid. His soft-touch approach isn’t working.”

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