The majority of County Councils' Network's (CCN) members are approaching the end of their budget-setting for 2023-24. Many have told us this is happening under the most challenging circumstances in decades, particularly due to the spectre of inflation, which has been above 9% since April.

If we rewind back to October, the local government sector had a ‘good' Autumn Budget. CCN and the Local Government Association were at the forefront of calling for extra resources for councils, which the chancellor delivered. The problem was that this funding still did not compensate for all inflationary costs and this pressure has not abated. Our members have had to make extremely difficult decisions over the past few weeks.