£51.8bn ‘black hole’ alert over funding for councils

COUNCILS face a £51.8billion funding ‘black hole’ over the next six years, a new report has claimed.

Plugging the shortfall would mean annual council tax rises, new charges for services and fresh ‘rounds of draconian cuts’, civic chiefs say.

Unless extra government funding is provided, only ‘bare minimum’ services will be possible, claims the County Councils Network.

Its call for extra resources in the forthcoming government spending review comes after it commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to study the effect rising costs and increased demand on services could have on council budgets until 0 5.

A spokesman for CCN, which represents 6 county councils and ten county unitary authorities across England, said: ‘Importantly, filling this funding gap only keeps services standing still, rather than improving or enhancing them, nor reversing the last nine years of cutbacks.’

And he warned: ‘If councils raise council tax by .99 per cent each year, the cumulative funding gap will still be over £30billion.’

CCN chairman Paul Carter fears ‘many vital services’, will all but disappear if extra funds are not forthcoming.

The study also found spending on adult social care will rise by £6.1billion nationally by 0 5 compared with a decade before.