Despite the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) upgrading its projection for UK growth to 3% this year, local authorities will still be feeling the effects of substantial budget cuts. This Autumn Statement will do little do hearten their mood, with scant concessions for councils that are already feeling stretched.

As a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) shows, austerity is already impacting on service provision. With the chancellor emphasising the need for substantial savings in public spending in today’s statement the situation looks set to continue and potentially worsen.

Councils have so far been able to protect their bottom lines from the effects of cuts, but that has meant service reductions in frontline areas such as community safety and traffic management.

The big risk to local government is that as they reduce services, they expose themselves to new reputational, operational and financial risks in these areas. As belts are tightened and councils dig further into their reserves, impacts may also be felt on core services such as social care.