District council leaders have warned that services that are essential for supporting residents through the cost-of-living crisis are threatened by inflationary pressures.

Rising costs mean district councils face a total budget shortfall of over £900m across 2022-23 and 2023-24, due to rising inflation and pay pressures, according to new research by the District Councils’ Network (DCN).

A survey by DCN, which received responses from around a third of district councils, also found that 70% are considering scaling back leisure services while 66% are considering cutting community support and resilience services.

Just over a third of the respondents (37%) said they were considering scaling back welfare support and 20% are thinking about scaling back homelessness support.

The survey also reveals widespread expectation that demand for support services will grow, including benefits support, homelessness and support for domestic violence victims.

In response to the findings, Cllr Sharon Taylor, DCN vice chair and Finance spokesperson, said: ‘District councils face a perfect storm. Inflation and pay pressures are driving up our costs just as the cost-of-living crisis bites for our residents and fuels demand for our services.

‘District councils are grappling with some very difficult decisions. We deliver a wide range of essential, statutory frontline services to 100% of our residents.

‘On top of that we do valuable work on prevention and our early intervention services help to keep people out of hardship, poverty and poor health. We desperately don’t want to cut back on leisure services or welfare support. But the risk is that something will have to give.

‘In many places districts’ work to make our areas good to places to live and thrive could fall victim to inflation, with cultural services, parks, waste collection and planning facing cuts, and regeneration work threatened by rising costs.’

She added: ‘We call on Government to work with us to address the budget pressures so that we can continue supporting our communities through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.’

For more on the DCN’s survey visit The MJ (£).