A £2 BILLION investment in England’s social care system is “well short” of the amount of money required, according to a senior councillor.

Social care is to receive an extra £2bn over the next three years, which will in turn ease pressure on the NHS, Chancellor Philip Hammond told Parliament yesterday.

He announced the new raft of funding for social care in the Budget after admitting the social care system “is clearly under pressure”.

But Bradford Council’s deputy leader, Councillor Val Slater, who leads on social care at the authority, gave the announcement only a lukewarm welcome.

She said: “That does seem encouraging but there’s actually very little detail as to how it will be distributed and what the detail of this will be.

“I do hope that it is something we can use to address the issues we have got in Bradford.”

Cllr Slater said the funding gap was more like £5.1bn so the extra cash would not meet the country’s current requirements for social care.

She said she hoped the money would not end up being spent mainly in the south of England and added: “I hope it’s new money and is not just money being redistributed by taking it out of other areas.”

Last month, Bradford Council decided to cut £16m from its social care budgets over the next two years.