COUNCIL chiefs have warned that expected further cuts to budgets will mean services provided by local authorities will be "severely damaged".

Cllr Nick Peel, Bolton Council's environment chief, said it was hard to work out where planned further Government funding cuts would come from the council's budget.

His comments come after the Local Government Association said its members were already facing £10 billion of cost pressures over the next five years due to national policies, increased demand and inflation.

The body estimates that moves such as introducing the new national living wage for over 25s will cost councils an extra £834 million a year by 2019-20, while there will be one-off bills such as £1.75 billion for business rate appeals after the 2017 revaluation.

The latest warning comes after Bolton Council approved cuts of £43 million over the next two years at a meeting in February.

The effect of the cuts included about 200 jobs being lost, reducing the amount of ‘face to face’ contact with the council by getting people to go online to get help or make complaints, and sharing workers, equipment and depots within environmental services with Wigan Council.

Cllr Peel said: "It is very hard to envisage how local government can take any more cuts. After the last round of cuts, people were warning across the country that it is making the delivery of local government services unsustainable. Local government just doesn't have the ability to run quality services with this level of cuts.

"It is very difficult to see where these cuts are going to come from, without severely damaging services that people are used to receiving."

The LGA, which represents more than 370 town halls in England and Wales, urged the Chancellor to bear these issues in mind when finalising the Spending Review.

Gary Porter, chairman, said: "Our new analysis shows the significant spending pressures facing councils over the next few years even before the possibility of further funding reductions.

"Leaving councils to pick up the bill for new national policies while being handed further spending reductions cannot be an option.

"Enormous pressure will be heaped on already stretched local services if the Government fails to fully assess the impact of these unfunded cost burdens when making its spending decisions for the next five years.

"Vital services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children, collecting bins, filling potholes and maintaining our parks and green spaces, will simply struggle to continue at current levels."