English councils will need billions more from government and big tax rises to maintain services and pay for social care reforms, says new analysis published today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

According to the IFS, under current spending plans council tax rises of 3.6% will be required for the next three years just to ensure councils provide the same range and quality of services in 2024-25 as they did before COVID-19. But it highlighted that bigger increases in underlying demand and cost pressures for top-ups to other budgets such as schools, which eat into the amount available for grants to councils, 'could easily push up the necessary council tax rises to 5% a year, or by over £220 by 2024-25'.