NEWPORT City Council faces having to make nearly £20million worth of cuts to plug a financial black hole, according to data from the BBC.

Some UK councils will not be able to provide even basic services after a BBC study found a £5bn black hole in public finances nationally.

The BBC Shared Data Unit has found the average council now faces a £33m predicted deficit by 2025-26 - a rise of 60 per cent from £20m two years ago.

Newport ranked below the national average - at £19.5million - but still highly in terms of the Welsh local authorities' cuts forecast.

Newport City Council were among the top five local authorities in Wales when it came to the largest cuts in total, per resident and as a percentage of overall budget.

The study showed that NCC were to make around £19.5million worth of cuts to fill the financial hole in their budget.

This would equate to around £122 per resident in money not spent – 5.2 per cent of the overall council budget.

Unison have said the cuts mean some councils would not be able to offer the “legal minimum of care” next year. 

The Local Government Association said inflation, the Living Wage and energy costs were adding billions to budget books.

Together, the 190 authorities surveyed said they would need to find £5.2bn to balance the books by April 2026 - even after making £2.5bn of cuts this year.

For the investigation, the BBC concentrated on the upper-tier authorities in England and Wales, as well as the single-tier councils in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Between April and June, we approached 218 councils in total, asking for details contained in each authority’s ratified budget for 2023-24 and their medium-term financial strategies.

The BBC asked the councils to provide:

  • The total net revenue budget requirement for 2023-24
  • Details of any savings planned for 2023-24 and how much of that pertained to adult social services
  • Whether the council planned to use general or earmarked reserves to balance the budget in 2023-24
  • Whether the council’s medium-term financial strategy contained an as yet un-funded shortfall for the 2025-26 financial year

Response rates to the BBC's study on local authority funding cuts

Response rate in England was: 131 out of 153

Response rate in Wales was: 20 out of 22

Response rate in Northern Ireland was: 8 out of 11

Response rate in Scotland was: 31 out of 32

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Mike Short, head of local government at Unison, said: "Council finances are in the direst of states. 

"Cash-starved councils have had to go cap in hand to ministers for emergency support or raid already depleted reserves in a desperate attempt to balance the books.

"This is not a sustainable situation. Local authorities simply don't have the funds to provide even statutory services.

"Council employees have had enough. It's no wonder so many are quitting for pastures new.

"Cuts are a false economy as the dreadful experiment with austerity has shown."