Vital services such as social care will have to be cut and 250 jobs axed to make savings, Newcastle City Council has announced.

The authority says it must save £30m next year and £100m over the next three years as a result of government cuts and rising cost pressures, on top of £191m saved since 2011.

It proposes to raise council tax by 1.9% but warned this will not be enough to avoid damaging cuts to social care.

The council says that despite the 'massive' challenge, it will continue to invest money, which it is not allowed to spend on services, in an ambitious capital programme to improve the city's infrastructure.

Council leader Nick Forbes said: 'We have strained every sinew to protect the most vulnerable, but the next five years of austerity is going to take us into unchartered territory.

'As the Government shrinks the size of the state to 1930s levels, many councils are facing the prospect of now dismantling their social care systems.'