Under the new funding arrangement, national funds for community care will be transferred to local authorities as a revenue support grant. The funds will not be earmarked for specific community care services. Each local authority will have the discretion to use the funds according to its assessment of local community care needs. Given the stigma attached to drug abuse clients, many local authorities will give low priority to this segment of their needy population. The bulk of each client's funding for drug treatment will come from the care costs that local drug treatment staff must negotiate with the local authority prior to a client's admission. The necessity of persuading local authorities to fund each care plan will delay the admissions process. The demise of Britain's residential drug services can only be prevented by either exempting drug treatment from the new funding scheme or mandating that a certain percentage of the funds given local authorities be used for drug treatment.