Rehab centre blasts Luton Borough Council's £1.2m budget cuts for drug treatment

UK Addiction Treatment Centres (UKAT), based at Liberty House on Old Bedford Road, has slammed Luton Borough Council following the release of its 2021/22 budget report.

UKAT’s analysis of the report shows that in five years, the council has slashed its drug misuse treatment budget from £3.9m in 2016/17 to £2.9M in 2021/22, wiping off £1m for treatment.

Similar cuts to treatment of alcohol misuse have also been recorded - from £545,000 in 2016/17 to £273,000 in 2021/22, HALVING the amount spent on helping those with alcohol addiction in just 5 years.

A UKAT spokesman said: "Collectively, Luton Borough Council has cut £1,194,000 in just five years to potentially life-saving treatment services to those most vulnerable in its community."

Elsewhere, Professor Dame Carol Black’s independent review into drug treatment and recovery in the UK has urged the government for a cash injection into drug and alcohol treatment services.

Liberty House has seen a 15% rise in admissions since the start of 2021 compared with the same seven months of 2020.

UKAT has also criticised the previous coalition government's decision in 2012 to allow councils free reign over how to spend their Public Health Grants.

“Effectively what happened is that this ring-fenced, life-saving money just disappeared into Luton Council’s budget spreadsheets and was spent elsewhere," claims Nuno Albuquerque, head of treatment for the UKAT Group. "They didn’t have to spend it on drug and alcohol treatment services and so they didn’t.

“It doesn’t take a genius to work out that as less and less is spent on providing treatment, the problem worsens.