Public health and social care are two of the most pressing issues facing our country today. Both are in need of new thinking and new funding if we are to maintain vital services helping our friends, families and neighbours every single day.

Public health responsibilities include preventive measures that routinely save thousands of lives and billions of pounds in health spending – from stopping smoking to nutritional information and physical exercise. Local government has taken responsibility for ‘public health and wellbeing’ in recent years, and is now facing a drastic reduction in its ability to fund these services.

This is a typical Tory tactic, saving a few pennies today that will end up costing us dearly tomorrow. Instead of a short-sighted cut to public health spending, we should be protecting investment in local services that saves so much money and time in the long-run. Like the old saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”.

George Osborne’s addition of a ‘Social Care Precept’ to council tax bills is a welcome move but doesn’t go far enough to address the problem. It is good that local government has been given the ability to raise funds to meet its care obligations to those in our community who need it, but the money councils can raise does not meet the costs of the care they will need to provide.

Even with this new precept, Osborne’s cuts to social care and health spending mean there will be a huge gap in funding for social care services by 2020.