Government cuts have led to 10 per cent of libraries closing and bus route subsidies slashed by nearly half

One in ten councils faces running out of money in the next three years after exhausting its reserves to pay the dramatically rising cost of social care, the government’s financial watchdog has concluded.

The National Audit Office (NAO) warned that many councils were on the verge of insolvency having had their central government funding cut by almost 50 per cent in eight years. It found that authorities’ financial positions had “worsened markedly” since they were last audited in 2014, with two thirds of councils with social care responsibilities dipping into their reserves last year. The report also revealed that government cuts had led councils to:

• Reduce the number of households having their bins collected each week by 33 per cent since 2011;

• Cut