Eight out of ten councils say they are not confident in the sustainability of local government finance, according to a survey by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU).
The survey discovered that 97% of authorities are planning to increase council tax in 2019/20, three quarters by more than 2.5%.
Over half of councils are planning to use some of their reserves this year, with 40% using them for two years running.
Responding to the survey, Paul Dossett, head of local government at accountancy firm Grant Thornton, said: “It is not surprising that this analysis finds nearly all councils surveyed are planning on raising council tax this year.
“The local government sector is facing unprecedented demand and financial pressures, and councils are having to focus on ways to generate income locally to keep afloat.
“It is worrying that more than half of the councils surveyed are planning to dip into their reserves.
“Council reserves are an unsustainable method of long-term funding and our recent analysis found that almost a third of all English councils are at risk of depleting their reserves in the next ten years, and almost one in five councils are set to be at risk by 2021.”
Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association’s resources board, said: “This survey illustrates the severity of the challenge facing councils with government grant funding at the lowest it has been for decades at the same time as demand for services, such as adult social care, children’s services and homelessness support, has grown.”
