Hampshire County Council faces £200m budget hole

A number of services have faced cuts over the past years

A council will have to plug an "unprecedented" £200m budget black hole within the next four years, it has been revealed.

Hampshire County Council is expecting the budget gap to reach this amount by 2025-26.

Councillors across the political spectrum have voiced concerns about the authority's financial future.

Council leader Rob Humby has said no additional government funding was expected over the next two years.

"We are not alone in this unprecedented financial situation, this is a national problem", he said.

He also added he thought the entire system of local government finance was "simply not fit for purpose".

"The money we get in from increased council tax and from government each year simply is not enough to cover the increased costs of inflation and growth in services," he said.

'Toughest year yet'

Mr Humby has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that "urgent root-and-branch changes" are needed to the current funding model "if the sector as a whole is going to survive this difficult period".

He said the financial pressures facing the authority by 2026 would be its "toughest yet".

Millions of pounds have already been cut from the county council's budget over the past years in a bid to balance the books.

A decision to scrap a transport scheme for children with special needs between home and school was taken by the authority earlier this week in a move set to save the council £986,000.

The social care budget has also hit by cuts while plans to close eight libraries to save £1.76m were unveiled in 2020.

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Keith House said the county council was in "a deep, dark financial hole that gets worse each year".

"The underlying issue is this government has failed to fund adult and children's services fully for more than a decade," he said.

He added he also thought the Conservative administration had "failed to make any impact on local MPs and government ministers to sort this out".

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been approached for comment.