Andy Burnham has given his strongest signal yet that he plans to raise taxes to pay for major improvements to Britain’s social care system.
The New Prime Minister stressed some social care reforms, such as better pay for staff, could be funded from existing budgets.
However, he also made clear that the full shake-up that he is exploring, with a new report by Dame Louise Casey, will require tax rises.
“Firstly, you have to do more with what you've got,” he said on a visit to a care home in north London.
“But I think Louise indicated some of what we would want to do in the fuller sense will require difficult decisions.
“But we will be honest with people about those.
“We will put them before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people's consent.”
He added that “in an ideal world I would not want anybody to have to sell their home to pay for care” because it was a “horrendous” thing for those forced to go through it.
Mr Burnham stressed that he wanted social care staff to be paid more in line with NHS workers, and to improve their training and wider support.
He also said that the NHS cannot be restored to the standard “we would all want to see” while there is an ongoing crisis in social care.
Too many people with social care needs are being taken to hospital, he explained, branding it a “lose-lose” situation.
He emphasised that there are two million adults in England with “unmet” care needs.
He also said the number of people admitted to A&E aged over 65, some from social care settings, had doubled to six million from 2010.
There are 13,600 people in hospital who are fit to be medically discharged, but are unable to be, he added.
Mr Burnham did not give any details of possible tax rises to pay for the social care reforms.
But workers and well-off pensioners in London could face bearing the brunt of a possible new levy to tackle Britain’s social care crisis.
Mr Burnham was on Wednesday holding cross-party talks to try to find a solution to the glaring shortcomings in support for people in their old age in the UK.
Previous Prime Ministers have repeatedly failed to rise to the challenge of properly addressing this crisis which leaves many pensioners facing financial difficulties, poor care or both.
Mr Burnham has vowed to “put everything I’ve got” into fixing Britain’s broken social care system.
But he has yet to explain how his flagship social care reforms could be funded.
One funding model, reportedly part of a series of options drawn up by civil servants at the Department for Health and Social Care, would be workers paying into a privately-managed fund to pay for their care in old age.
It would be set at 1.8 per cent of earnings above £6,240, according to The Telegraph, paid by people over the age of 34.
The funds built up would be invested to use for social care for workers later in life when their cohort reaches old age.
In addition to the general fund, it would be supplemented by wealthier elderly people paying for between 10 and 45% of their own social care costs, depending on their assets.
Such a policy would particularly affect London and the South East given the number of well-off pensioners are far greater than in other regions.
Salaries are also significantly higher in the capital than in other regions, so a 1.8% flat levy would see Londoners paying more into the fund.
As part of Gordon Brown’s government in 2010, then Health Secretary Mr Burnham suggested a levy to fund a proposed national care service could take 10% off people’s estates after they died.
Downing Street insisted on Tuesday that the new Government had “no plans” to impose such a 10% levy on all inheritances to fund the social care reforms.
Privately-run nursing home chains could be excluded from the social care reforms, according to The Times, to stop taxpayers money being used to bolster their profits.
Instead more social care could be provided by community-led services run by local authorities, not-for-profit companies or charities.
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation “to build that spirit of collaboration from the start” to try to sort the care crisis.
But there were already signs of difficulties ahead with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch writing to Mr Burnham to challenge him to rule out tax rises or increased borrowing to pay for social care reform.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told the BBC: “The current system is broken. I think everyone can agree to that.
“I just hope that all parties can go into these talks in a way which is desperately trying to find a solution.”
Nigel Farage criticised Mr Burnham for ignoring Reform UK.
Mr Burnham has frequently cited his personal experience of the care system, as his father lives with Alzheimer’s in a care home.
He has described as “not defensible” a system that can see people lose their homes and savings to pay for care.
Baroness Louise Casey, who is currently leading a commission into social care, accompanied Mr Burnham on the visit to the London care home.
Through her so-called “Big Conversation on Care”, she is seeking public opinion on what a social care system should look like, what people should pay and what role the state should play to inform her major review.
Lady Casey, who is expected to publish her first report from her review later this year, noted in a speech earlier this month that there have been no fewer than 22 attempts since 1997 at reforming the sector, none of which she said had “fixed the foundations”.
She stressed that there is a need for an “honest conversation about how to build something better” than the current system, which she has previously described as “patched together”.
