Jonathan Carr West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), which advises on policy across the world, said the BBC study showed the sector was “still struggling to keep up with astronomic rates of increase in demand and cost for those key statutory services like adult social care and children’s services”.
“The sector as a whole continues to become more and more on the brink of collapse,” he added.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, said the cost and demand pressures were “unrelenting”.
“In just three years, councils will need around 25 per cent more money simply to stand still,” he said. “Without action, the services people rely on every day, from social care to safe streets, will be eroded.”
Though the government has increased the amount of grant funding councils receive from the Treasury since the pandemic, a study by independent thinktank the Institute for Government found it was still, external down on pre-2010 levels, external.
Even if this year’s savings are achieved, councils predict they will need to find a further £3.8bn by the end of the 2027-28 financial year to balance their books. A record 37 councils will also receive forms of exceptional financial support this year.
It means many are trying to lower the cost of providing care to the elderly and vulnerable, whether by re-tendering contracts with cheaper care companies, closing care homes or by re-assessing those already in care to see if their package of support can be reduced.
