COUNCILLORS in England’s shire counties have warned the government of the “devastating” effects if yet more cuts are made to their budgets.

The County Councils Network (CCN), which represents 36 predominantly Tory-controlled councils, has told Chancellor Jeremy Hunt the councils’ “unambiguous” message was that “we need more help, not less.”

The councils cover mainly rural areas with a population of 26 million people.

Writing to Mr Hunt on Thursday October 27, CCN chairman and leader of Tory-run Surrey County Council Tim Oliver warned that the Treasury should be “under no illusions on what the impact will be on local services.”

“Considering inflation and demand is set to add £3.5 billion to our costs, this would be worse than the period of austerity and devastating for local services,” he wrote.

He said that the people worst-hit by more cuts would be “the most vulnerable in our society” and would reduce council services to “the bare minimum.”

PM Rishi Sunak and Mr Hunt are drawing up plans for deep spending cuts, expected to be announced in the Autumn Statement on November 17, according to reports. 

Mr Oliver warned that large-scale cuts would force councils to make “unpalatable decisions” including cutting down services to provide a “very basic ‘core level’” of services.   

“I know the new Chancellor faces some very difficult decisions, but and our message is unambiguous: with inflation causing multibillion black holes in our budgets, we need more help, not less,” he said. 

“There is simply no longer any easy ‘efficiency savings’ or low-hanging fruit to cut from councils.

“Recent increases in funding staved off the prospect of a ‘core offer’ of services becoming a reality, but we are now facing down the barrel of this once again.”