Some councils are close to going bust, the chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.
Sir Merrick Cockell, at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, made his comments before the keynote address by communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles today.
The LGA has said councils will have to make immediate cuts to soften the impact of what local authorities have estimated could be a 15% reduction in Government grant.
In an interview with a national newspaper, Sir Merrick said: ‘We are being pushed into a position where either things will fail or the system has to change … we can’t cope unless someone takes that big step … to change the way we operate.
‘The system will be fundamentally changed [with] the fracturing of a lot of public services, especially if you [ministers] are controlling the council tax.’
Senior members of the LGA have previously warned that councils could struggle to provide statutory services as a result of the cuts being imposed.