Our local councils deliver services we rely on every day, from bin collections to social housing, from our roads to social care.

Yet, despite the crucial role they play in our everyday lives, many have been forced to breaking point through brutal cuts from the Conservatives in Whitehall.

Birmingham is the latest authority to declare bankruptcy, the eighth since 2018. For some of these councils – which also include Northampton, Thurrock and Slough – people will point to mismanagement from council leaders, who made risky commercial decisions.

However, there are many other councils which are now looking over their shoulders. Suffolk County Council is forecasting an overspend of £22.3 million, with service reductions and spending freezes almost certain. This is against the backdrop of painful cuts the authority has already made to services over the years.

The once proud network of children’s centres has been hollowed out. There are now half as many health visitors as there were in 2019. The erosion of public transport subsidies and a botched remodeling of the school transport system have hit rural communities hard. Our roads and highways are in tatters and even the street lights are being turned off early to try and save a few pounds.

People will, with some justification, point to the fact that a failure to invest properly in some services has led to greater costs in the long-term. Damaging cuts have also fallen repeatedly on those who can least afford them – children, for instance. Those were political choices, and have had disastrous effects.

However, where I have some sympathy is the fact that councils across the country have had to endure terrible cuts to their core funding. Since 2015/16, Suffolk County Council’s funding settlement from the Government has been slashed by over £110 million a year in real-terms. When other district and borough councils in Suffolk are factored in, another £16 million a year has been removed from the county.

The cross-party Local Government Association has said that councils in England face a funding gap of almost £3 billion over the next two years just to keep services standing still. The reality is, the financial situation across local government is now so fragile that almost all councils would be unable to withstand any sort of financial shock. They can’t do what the government has done, and operate with eye wateringly high levels of debt (which now stands at nearly £2.6 trillion). Councils must balance the budget every single year, meaning most councils will be forced to make even deeper cuts to services next year.

None of this is helped by the roulette approach to local government funding. Councils already weakened by Conservative cuts have found themselves in the absurd position where they’re having to waste huge sums of money bidding for short-term funding – with no guarantee of success. How are councils supposed to plan ahead and guarantee a sustainable delivery of services when they are faced with endless single year settlements that are only only confirmed weeks before the start of the year?

Local councils are often best placed to deliver for their communities so they need to be treated as a partner to central government, not a poor relation.

We also have to move away from the current hunger-games approach, with councils in equally desperate need competing with one another for funding. Instead, we have to ensure stability by providing long-term funding settlements.

Lastly, devolution could be transformative on issues such as transport, climate change, housing and childcare provision, but only if it comes with the right powers, funding and structure.

Local councils deliver the services we rely on every day, but they are being eroded away. We have to prevent their collapse before it’s too late.