The care sector has condemned the absence of support for the social care sector in the government’s 2023 Budget.

Sam Monaghan, chief executive at MHA, the UK’s largest charity care provider, said the Budget’s failure to provide additional support to the sector was “another blow for those working in or accessing social care”. He called for immediate support to help manage escalating costs, including energy costs, and greater details on plans for a more sustainable funding model.

Oliver Boundy, executive director of development at Anchor, England’s largest provider of specialist housing and care for those in later life, said he was disappointed that housing was “glaringly absent” from the Budget. “To meet the pent-up demand and deliver the homes our aging society needs, the government must ensure that planning reforms support the development of older people’s housing through a new planning classification for retirement communities, to help unlock the pending investment in the market and incentivising downsizing by introducing Stamp Duty Land Tax relief for older people,” he said.

Kari Gerstheimer, chief executive and founder of legal advice charity Access Social Care, also condemned Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s failure to announce extra funding for social care. “Until the Government addresses the recruitment and retention issues plaguing the social care workforce, older and disabled people will continue to go without the care they have a right to,” she said. “As wages in the sector fail to match those in other industries the social care workforce continues to haemorrhage staff, as the rising cost of living combined with poor wages leaves care workers unable to meet their basic needs. Social care has been at crisis point for years, yet, once again, in this Spring Statement, Government continues to ignore the evidence of three select committees and the reality of councils across the country making yet more cuts to budgets.”

However the sector welcomed pledges to boost the workforce by encouraging over-50s back to work and provide more financial support for parents of young children. Anchor chief executive Sarah Jones said: “As an Age Friendly Employer, Anchor applauds any policy that supports people to continue to undertake paid work, should they choose to do so, and we encourage government to work with employers to ensure that age friendly practises become the norm.”

Debbie Price, chief executive of Shropshire’s largest not-for-profit care provider Coverage Care Services, said: “Across the care sector and health profession nationally it has become increasingly harder to attract new recruits and retain existing staff and it’s a serious issue for many care homes up and down the UK. We very much welcome plans by the Chancellor to encourage the long-term unemployed and early retired people to go back to the workplace, as well as greater financial support for parents of young children, but our worry is that these measures alone won’t help the immediate staffing struggles which care homes are currently facing. What the care sector has needed for years is a proper, bold, national plan and we still don’t seem to be any closer to that.”