Herefordshire Council facing £22m shortfall from April

Herefordshire councillors are being urged to back a motion to call for more funding from the government from April

A council is facing a budget shortfall of more than £22m next financial year unless the government provides more help, the local authority has warned.

Herefordshire Council is planning to write to the prime minister calling for funding to be raised by the current rate of inflation.

Councillors will be asked to back the move in a meeting on Friday.

The chancellor has allowed English councils to increase council tax by 5% annually without a referendum.

Jeremy Hunt insisted in his Autumn Statement his plan would get the UK through an economic "storm".

But Herefordshire Council's leader David Hitchiner previously warned the move would not even cover "inflationary costs".

The local authority is already facing a likely overspend in the current financial year of £11.2m, chief executive Paul Walker said.

Nearly two-thirds of that total is due to costs associated with transforming the county's failing children's services, a council report said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said councillors would be asked on Friday to support a proposal to write to the prime minister and local MPs to call for more funding from April - the start of the new financial year.

Liz Harvey, the councillor in charge of the local authority's finances, has drawn up the motion, which also said the county should declare a cost-of-living emergency.

The move would commit it to providing "easy, swift and understandable" advice and support for people, she said.