MPs have warned key services are on a ‘knife edge' due to the poor financial health of councils in England.

Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Clive Betts, has written to local government secretary Michael Gove to highlight the funding pressures councils are under when it comes to the provision of services such as social care, children's services and homelessness.

He said: ‘Councils across the board are facing a set of very serious financial and service challenges.

‘The alarm has been sounded and this isn't just for councils hit by one-off issues but those tipped into difficulty by a range of factors, including the rising costs of social care and children's services, and the effects of the housing crisis and homelessness.'