Liverpool loses case over care funding

The High Court has thrown out a complaint by Liverpool Council that
the grant it received to pay for the care of independent care home
residents formerly funded by central government was
insufficient.

The row follows the government’s decision to transfer funding
responsibility for the care of people already living in independent
care homes before April 1993 to local authorities. Liverpool
Council was allocated £8.6m for 2002-3 to pay for this group,
but estimated that this amounted to a shortfall of between
£1.45m and £2m between the grant and actual care
costs.

The council’s barrister argued that the consultation process had
been “purely cosmetic”.

But judge Mr Justice Stanley Burton said that no greater
consultation was required than that which took place, and the
judicial review challenge was dismissed.