{"id":453217,"date":"2026-03-02T07:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453217\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T07:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:10:14","slug":"labour-council-accuses-minister-of-moral-bankruptcy-over-social-care-dispute-local-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453217\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour council accuses minister of \u2018moral bankruptcy\u2019 over social care dispute | Local government"},"content":{"rendered":"

The housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, has been accused by a Labour<\/a> council of showing \u201carrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy\u201d towards children in social care.<\/p>\n

In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were \u201cfurious and appalled\u201d at Reed after a meeting with him last week.<\/p>\n

A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for \u00a33m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care.<\/p>\n

The town in County Durham<\/a> is one of the most deprived in England. It has the third highest number of children in care per capita in the country.<\/p>\n

Pamela Hargreaves, the Labour leader of Hartlepool council, told the Guardian that Reed said the government would not \u201creward councils for having high numbers of children in care\u201d and then \u201cdismissed\u201d the discussion by saying: \u201cThat\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat comment tells you everything,\u201d Hargreaves said. \u201cShrugging at abused and exploited children is not policy, it is moral bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling proper funding for children in care a \u2018reward\u2019 is obscene and offensive. Protecting vulnerable children is a basic moral and legal duty of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cOur children and our families deserve far better than arrogance, indifference and a shrug of \u2018that\u2019s life\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartlepool\u2019s Labour council has accused Steve Reed of showing arrogance and indifference towards the crisis in social care funding. Photograph: Tolga Akmen\/EPA<\/p>\n

The government said it was fixing an outdated and unfair council funding system and had made \u00a378bn available for local authorities next year, as well as a 33% increase for Hartlepool council by 2028-29.<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said: \u201cOur fair funding reforms will ensure councils get the funding they need to deliver high-quality public services that local people deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed has said ministers were \u201crealigning\u201d funding so that poorer areas got a fairer share.<\/p>\n

However, local government leaders have said a significant increase in funding is needed to stop more local authorities from going bankrupt after a huge increase in costs and cuts under the Conservative government.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said their area was being failed by ministers in a system that \u201cpunishes deprivation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hartlepool\u2019s Labour group said it receives far below the national average for looked after children as part of the government\u2019s children in social care prevention grant \u2013 equating to \u00a36,674 per child.<\/p>\n

They said children were being forced into expensive private and unregulated placements due to a nationwide shortage of foster carers. Each placement costs the council \u00a313,000 to \u00a320,000 per child each week.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, said the government had offered a cash increase of \u00a33m but this was \u201cthe equivalent of funding around six children in care\u201d, adding that it needed an additional \u00a33m to help balance the books.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said scores of vulnerable families had been relocated to Hartlepool by southern councils in the past year, in effect \u201cdumping millions of pounds of additional need into one of the poorest boroughs in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the government\u2019s \u201chigh handed and dismissive attitude\u201d reduced vulnerable children to \u201ca line on a spreadsheet\u201d. She added: \u201cThey are children with a legal right to protection. Refusing to fix a rigged funding system and telling deprived communities to tax themselves harder is not leadership, it is abdication.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group of 21 Labour councillors said in February they were considering quitting the party<\/a> after being \u201cbetrayed\u201d by ministers.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said a mass resignation was still possible. The Labour group is not expected to raise council tax when it finalises the budget on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The authority was won back by Labour two years ago from a Conservative-independent coalition but Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK is hoping for significant gains when a third of the council seats go up for re-election in May. Its precursor, the Brexit party, briefly led the authority in coalition with the Conservatives in 2019-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, has been accused by a Labour council of showing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}