Cash strapped council will feel the consequences of the fight against coronavirus for years to come, a top think tank has warned.
A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that the crisis is pushing up councils' spending and reducing their locally-sourced incomes by billions of pounds.
The document, produced by IFS researchers and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Local Government Association, suggests that councils' forecasts of the spending and non-tax income pressures resulting from the crisis will exceed the additional funding made available this year by around £2 billion.