Stockport Council has warned that 'difficult decisions' will be made to plug a massive £63m gap in its finances.

Due to rising costs in areas such as social care, homelessness and from inflation, Stockport town hall said it needs to find the huge amount of savings in the years up to 2029/30.

It follows the last budget in February where the council had to find £26m to balance the books.

A new report has lifted the lid on the 'significant' financial difficulties putting pressure on the council, its 'budget gap of £63.222m', and how the money could be found.

The report stated: 'Achieving a resilient budget whilst delivering our longer-term ambitions is extremely challenging.

'We can only achieve this by making challenging and difficult decisions, robust prioritisation of our resource, and ambitious changes in the way we work to deliver services.'

Stockport is facing rising costs in areas such as social care and homelessness (Image - Nub News)

It continued: 'We recognise this will present challenging decisions about the services the council delivers and how it delivers them to ensure continuing financial robustness and resilience.'

The council has proposed a mix of options to cut costs, including 'efficiency' savings, change proposals, dipping into its reserves, and budget adjustments.

Council leader Mark Roberts will discuss the issues in a meeting with his cabinet team next week.

Deputy leader Jilly Julian, who is also the cabinet member for finance, refused to speculate on the specifics of how the money will be saved at this stage, but confirmed tough decisions will have to be made by the administration.

Cllr Mark Roberts, leader of Stockport Council, and Cllr Jilly Julian, council cabinet member for finance (Images - Stockport Council)

With the council budget having to stretch thinner every year, residents are also being hit in the pocket with higher charges for services.

In the last budget, this saw council tax go up by 4.99 per cent, a new £59 per year charge introduced for those who want garden waste collections in green bins, and blue bin paper collections changed to monthly from fortnightly.

The squeeze on finances was made worse when the council missed out on a slice of the government's £600m recovery fund that was dished out to town halls across the country, but missed out Stockport, Trafford and Solihull councils.

Cllr Julian said government 'underfunding' is forcing councils to take measures such as putting up tax to keep their heads above water.

"For 17 years, successive governments have eroded councils' funding, while increasing their legal responsibilities," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Cllr Jilly Julian said lack of funding from central government is causing problems for councils (Image - Nub News)

"Those legal responsibilities include things like social care – which represents around 67 per cent of the Council's budget – it's the services that most profoundly impact lives.

"We take supporting our residents and delivering the services they need seriously.

"Rather than finance it seriously though, government refuses to reverse this erosion of funding and enable us to really deliver – either on these front-line services or the great preventative work that could reduce the pressure in the system."

She added: "I'm confident that Stockport will navigate the savings requirement that we face.

"We're developing what we'll need to do to meet our medium term challenges, and won't speculate on specifics at this stage. There will be difficult decisions ahead, but we'll approach them the right way."

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was approached for comment.

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