STRUGGLING county councils have called for a much-needed government cash boost to balance its budgets.

A budget analysis by the County Councils Network (CCN) found that “the worst is yet to come” unless cash-strapped councils are provided with additional funding by the government in its next spending review.

Worcestershire County Council would not say whether it would join the calls from other local authorities for a NHS-style cash injection to help boost council budgets or whether it was in a ‘cash crisis’.

Michael Hudson, chief financial officer at the county council, said: “Worcestershire County Council is an active participant in the County Councils Network and recognises the difficulty facing local government.

“We continue to work closely with our peers in lobbying central government as a collective, as a council and with our local public sector partners.

“This is a critical period for the future funding of all areas of the public sector and we will be working hard to both identify savings and bring in more money.

“The likely response from central government will not be known until December 2018 and the councils budget process is aligned with that. We will be doing consultations and briefings to keep members, partners and the public informed.”

The report by CCN follows the revelation that Worcestershire County Council buried a report by independent experts which called for it to take “urgent” action to address its finances.

In June 2017, members of the council’s Conservative cabinet and top officers in the senior leadership team heard from experts at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, who had been asked to look into the financial situation, at a cost of £29,000.

The slides presented to the group included some alarming language – saying there ‘was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide’ and that expected savings from ‘transformation’ of the council were ‘over-optimistic’.

CCN says concerns are growing for county councils to cope with costly and demanding services such as adult and children’s social care.

The county council said it is making investments of £10.5 million into children’s social care and £7.8 million into adult social care in 2018/19.