Chancellor may use council tax hike to fund elderly care

There could be an interesting new announcement on council tax from the Chancellor in Wednesday's Autumn Statement and Spending Review.

Not the freezes in the local tax we have come to expect from George Osborne.

But perhaps a tax rise to fund the care of the country's growing elderly population.

Social care is provided by local government.

And local government budgets have been squeezed hard by Mr Osborne since 2010.

In fact, the crisis in social care is affecting services in the NHS as elderly patients cannot be discharged.

So the Government may announce a new levy on your council tax - perhaps of up to 2% to replenish social care budgets.

It would add £30 a year (£2.50 per month) to a typical Band D property.

But it could make a huge difference in elderly care budgets which have been under so much strain for so long.