THE Government may have to rethink its expectations of local councils if it continues to pile on cost pressures and cut budgets, according to Swindon Borough Council leader David Renard.

His comments come after a report from the Local Government Association (LGA) said councils face a £10 billion cost pressure by 2020 under current proposals.

Exempting 200,000 starter homes from making community payments, reducing social rents and setting aside cash for expected business rate appeals in 2017 when there is a revaluation, is pushing up local authority expenditure, the organisation claims.

In Swindon, the authority will have to find a predicted £70 million in savings over the next five years, while demand for adults and children’s social services continues to soar.

“I have always argued that councils have to play their part in reducing the national debt, but central government has to help local government,” said Councillor David Renard (Con, Haydon Wick).

“If we are not going to get more financial help then the time may come when we have to reduce the number of functions the council carries out.

“In Swindon, as elsewhere, we have delivered a huge number of savings in recent years.”

Earlier this week, the council announced its new vision for the future, outlining a new way for the council to operate in the face of financial pressures.

It will see greater involvement from businesses, parish councils and residents but Coun Renard warned unpopular announcements would likely be made in the future.

He said: “We are carrying out a full review of our services and once that is done we will we have a better idea.

"There is no doubt difficult decisions have to be made and we will have to look at things which are heavily subsidised.”

Labour agreed a heavy burden is being put on local authorities.

Group leader Jim Grant (Lab, Rodbourne Cheney) has criticised some of the government policies which have left the council facing such financial issues.

“I think Coun Renard is right that the government cannot continue cutting back so significantly on local government and then add new pressures to local authorities such as by increasing the minimum wage to £9 per hour and preventing local authorities collecting as much funding from developers to improve the public realm," he said.

“The Government has already had to postpone the capping of social care costs for the elderly because they had no new money to deliver it.

“What I think would have been smarter would have been to not cut inheritance tax for estates worth up to £1m and to not reduce corporation tax when the UK already has the lowest corporation tax rate among G8 countries.”