Government proposals to fix social care will be based on cross-party consensus for reform, said Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Defending the lack of a pledge to fix social care in the Budget, Sunak told the BBC it would take time to bring forward any such plans.
"We are committed to finding a cross-party solution to sustainable social care funding. It is important given the long-term duration of social care policy that, as much as possible, we’d like to build a consensus around a solution,” he told the Today programme.
“Right now our focus is the pandemic, but the Health Secretary has started work on what the solutions might be and, if we can find consensus, we will bring that forward,” he added.
Asked what happened to Boris Johnson’s prepared plan for social care announced when we became Prime Minister in July 2019, Sunak replied: “Given it’s a problem that has not found a solution over many governments and parliaments, it’s going to take some time and thought to get it right because we want to make sure it’s a lasting settlement.”
The government had earmarked over £1 billion of targeted support to help social care during the pandemic, he added.
