COUNCIL leaders have called for reform of local government finance and an end to “short-term” measures after Michael Gove confirmed that authorities will receive £500 million in emergency funding for social care.

In a written statement on Wednesday, the Communities Secretary said the extra money would enable councils to provide “crucial social care services for their local communities, particularly children.”

The funding package increases the local government finance settlement from a planned £64 billion to £64.7bn, the statement said.

More than 40 Conservative backbenchers recently signed a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, warning that, without emergency cash, many councils will be forced to cut crucial front-line services and raise council tax in a general election year.

Unison Cymru/Wales head of local government Darron Dupre said the funding was “a drop in the ocean” for councils across Britain, with Welsh authorities facing a shortfall of £400m in their budgets in April.

“With a small percentage being given to Welsh government as part of the Barnett formula, Unison calls on the Welsh government to immediately pass on these funds to councils in Wales,” he said.

Shadow levelling-up secretary Angela Rayner described the extra funding as “an admission of failure” by “an incompetent and chaotic” government.

She said: “Yet another sticking plaster over the gaping financial wound the Tories have inflicted on our communities won’t fix the fundamentals.

“Local councils are stuck in a Tory doom loop, on the front line of the Tory cost-of-living crisis and forced to fork out millions to pay for the crises in housing and social care and unable to plan for the future.”

County Councils Network chairman Tim Oliver, who is also the Tory leader of Surrey County Council, said the additional funding would “go some way” to easing pressures, but he warned that service reductions will still be necessary for some councils to balance their books.

Calling for a long-term funding settlement, he added that there needed to be reform of the system of local government finance and “the way we are expected to provide services.”

Sir Stephen Houghton, Labour leader of Barnsley Council and chairman of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities, said the extra funding would provide short-term help, but it would not address the long-term funding gap and need for reform to a “broken” finance model.