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Bristol’s mayor has joined with 75 other council leaders in writing to demand an end to government cuts, warning that budgets are “perilously close to collapse”.

Mayor Marvin Rees has put his name to a letter to communities secretary James Brokenshire, in an attempt to put pressure on him to row back on council cuts before local government budgets for next year are announced on Thursday, December 6.

Mr Rees endorsed comments in the letter warning that more money was needed to “avoid catastrophic collapse in key council services”.

The city, town and borough leaders want Mr Brokenshire to deliver on the prime minister’s pledge, made in her Tory Party conference speech, that austerity would be coming to an end.

Theresa May said in October: “A decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off.”

Watch: Marvin Rees announces Bristol libraries won't be shut:

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The 76 Labour leaders said, with 60p out of every £1 in funding taken away since 2010, councils were having to take the axe to widely used services such as children’s centres, street cleaning and libraries in a bid to protect vulnerable children and adults.

Bristol City Council put up council tax by five per cent in April as it made £34.5m worth of savings in its 2018-19 budget.

The spreadsheet trimming will have to continue next year if the government does not intervene, with City Hall chiefs having to make £108m in savings overall by 2023, with funding for libraries, parks, school crossings and PCSOs already feeling the pinch over the past two years.

The council leaders, in their letter dated December 1, wrote: “After eight years of austerity, many councils have reached breaking point and council budgets are perilously close to collapse.

“Austerity has already caused huge damage to communities up and down the UK, with devastating effects on key public services that protect the most defenceless in society – children at risk, disabled adults, and vulnerable older people.

(Image: Getty Images)

“Attempts to protect these demand-led services from the worst of the funding cuts are leading to even deeper reductions to services that everyone relies on like street cleaning, libraries, and children’s centres, and to many of the preventative services that previously reduced the pressure on the NHS and police.

“We are writing to you because as leaders of many of our country’s towns and cities it is our responsibility to speak up for the communities we represent,” they wrote.

“As communities secretary, it is your responsibility to deliver the funding that councils need to avoid collapse.”

The leaders, representing areas including Manchester, Exeter, Newcastle and Birmingham, quoted cross-party Local Government Association figures, stating that councils face a funding gap of £3.9bn simply to maintain services in 2019-20, with huge gaps in adult social care, children’s services and homelessness reduction budgets.

The council leaders said poorer areas of England had been disproportionately hit by the cuts, with nine of the 10 most deprived councils in the country seeing “cuts of almost three times the national average”.

They have called for this week’s settlement to, “at an absolute minimum”, cancel the planned further cut of £1.3bn to the 2019-20 revenue support grant – the main arm of financial support from central government to local councils. The cut would amount to a 36 per cent reduction of the grant overall.

Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s shadow communities secretary, said: “The government must listen to the warnings of our local government leaders and provide the funding we need to avoid a catastrophic collapse in key council services.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We’ll be confirming local government funding for the financial year 2019-20 soon.

“Already we’ve committed to providing councils with £90.7bn over the next two years to help them meet the needs of their residents.

“In the budget, we announced more than £1bn in extra funding for local government to address pressures on their services.”

Council leaders letter in full

Dear Secretary of State,

On Thursday December 6, you will announce the provisional local government finance settlement for 2019/20.

As leaders of councils representing millions of citizens, we are writing to make clear that you must use the settlement to truly end austerity in local government and immediately provide the funding we need to avoid catastrophic collapse in key council services.

Under the Conservatives there have been unprecedented levels of cuts to local government. Since 2010 councils will have lost 60p out of every £1 the last Labour government had provided for local services. The most deprived areas of the country have been hit much harder than the richest areas - nine of the ten most deprived councils in the country have seen cuts of almost three times the national average.

After eight years of austerity, many councils have reached breaking point and council budgets are perilously close to collapse. Austerity has already caused huge damage to communities up and down the UK, with devastating effects on key public services that protect the most defenceless in society: children at risk, disabled adults, and vulnerable older people.

Attempts to protect these demand-led services from the worst of the funding cuts are leading to even deeper reductions to services that everyone relies on like street cleaning, libraries, and children’s centres, and to many of the preventative services that previously reduced the pressure on the NHS and police.

We are writing to you because as leaders of many of our country’s towns and cities it is our responsibility to speak up for the communities we represent. As Communities Secretary it is your responsibility to deliver the funding that councils need to avoid collapse.

The cross-party Local Government Association has stated that councils are facing a funding gap of £3.9 billion just to maintain services in 2019/20, including:

• £1.5 billion gap in adult social care funding

• £1.1 billion gap in children’s services

• £460 million in public health

• £113 million in tackling homelessness

This funding gap will rise to £7.8 billion by 2025 if no action is taken. You must use the funding settlement to indicate how you intend to close this £3.9 billion funding gap in 2019/20, and make a public commitment to a full assessment of the overall funding needs of local government in the 2019 spending review.

This settlement should also be used as an opportunity by the government to clear up the continued uncertainty that local authorities are facing. The uncertainty of what councils will face following the 2019 spending review is making it even harder for councils to plan financially, and with Brexit looming ever closer, councils are still unsure of what the impact will be on their local economies, their workforce, and key services once we leave the European Union.

At an absolute minimum, you must use the funding settlement to cancel the planned further cut of £1.3bn to next year’s revenue support grant. To blindly press on with further cuts at a time when local government is on the brink of collapse would be hugely irresponsible.

If you will not act then you should stand aside and let a Labour government build a society for the many, not the few.

Given the public interest in this matter we will be publishing this letter.

Yours sincerely,