Budget 2024: Chancellor commits £165 million to boost children's homes capacity
Amrit Virdi
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
A £165 million boost to increase children’s homes capacity in England is among measures to support children and families included in the government’s latest budget.
Announcing his Budget for 2024, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced £45 million funding for local authorities to create 200 additional children’s home placements, alongside a £120 million investment to maintain secure children’s homes. The budget document states that part of this will fund rebuilding Atkinson Secure Children’s Home and Swanwick Secure Children’s Home.
The Treasury document also states that “it will work with the Local Government Pension Scheme to consider the role they could play in unlocking investment in new children’s homes” as part of work to improve transparency around investment in private equity firms.
Alongside this, the hourly rate that childcare providers are paid to deliver the government’s expansion of funded childcare offer will be increased. According to the Treasury’s document, this “represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years”.
Hunt also announced an “initial £105 million towards a wave of 15 new special free schools to create over 2,000 additional places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across England.” Locations of the schools will be announced by May 2024, Hunt added.
The household support fund in England, which allows local authorities to provide basics for families, is also set to be extended for a further six months with £500 million investment, “as inflation continues to fall”, Hunt told the House of Commons.
The child benefit tax system, which Hunt branded as “confusing and unfair”, is also set to be reformed as the Chancellor announced that the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) threshold will be increased to £60,000 from £50,000 from next month.
Additionally, “the rate at which HICBC is charged will also be halved so that child benefit is not fully withdrawn until individuals earn £80,000 or higher”. It was also said that the government plans to “administer the HICBC on a household rather than an individual basis by April 2026”.
The violence reduction unit (VRU) model - a series of regional organisations designed to divert young people away from violent crime - will also receive £75 million over three years from 2025 onwards to allow a “joint strategy to tackle serious violence among young people”.
A new duty on vaping and an increased tobacco duty from October 2026 is also set to be introduced, following the Prime Minister's earlier commitment to creating a "smoke-free generation" by 2027.
Local government leaders have criticised Hunt's budget saying it does nothing to “adequately fund the local services people rely on every day” as councils face a funding crisis.
