An extra £6 million on its way for social care in Wolverhampton

The news follows the Chancellor's spring budget last week when additional funding for adult social care was announced to help local councils plug a massive spending gap.

City chiefs are already looking at areas where the new cash could be spent, including ways to prevent the medically fit from taking up hospital beds and commissioning additional home support.

Mr Hammond bowed to pressure from MPs across the political spectrum, including his own backbenches, over the strains on social care, pledging to set aside £2bn nationally over the next three years to help councils cope, although campaigners said it did not go far enough and would not meet the huge growth in demand.

Councillor Andrew Johnson, cabinet members for resources in Wolverhampton, said : “We have been asking for assistance from the government with the growing costs of care of the elderly so this new short-term grant is welcome."

But he added: "What is really needed is a sustainable long-term solution, involving our health partners, which we hope the funding review also announced in the budget will achieve.”