BARROW Council is to call on chancellor Philip Hammond to get his chequebook out later this month and end the “funding crisis” facing town halls.

The Labour-run council is seeking support for a motion calling on the chancellor to use his upcoming autumn statement to “end austerity” in local government funding.

The authority says it was the worst hit local council for funding two years ago and faces rising demand for services against falling government grants.

The borough council now has nearly £8 million less to spend than it did at the start of the decade. It says it has lost 20 per cent of its workforce and 40 per cent of its budget. 

To balance its books in 2017-18, the council used £1.7 million from its rainy day reserves. It warns that by 2020, local authorities will have lost 60p in every £1 of Government grant. 

At a meeting of the full council in Barrow Town Hall on Tuesday night,  a pair of Labour councillors will call on the 36-member authority to recognise the “deep concerns” facing town hall funding nationwide.

The motion, by Alec Proffitt (Lab, Central) and Lee Roberts (Lab, Parkside),  reads: “Barrow Borough Council values local government services and calls on the chancellor to honour the Prime Minister’s commitment to end austerity and use the autumn budget to tackle the immediate funding crisis for local government in 2019-20 and deliver a sustainable funding settlement in the forthcoming spending review.”

They say the Government must “protect and refund” services and recognise the significant “social value” councils play in helping children, adults, vulnerable people and the homeless.

At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier this month, Mrs May pledged to “end austerity” and create “an economy of the future, with nowhere left behind”.

Yet Barrow continues to be Cumbria’s “most deprived” district and is 29th in the table of most deprived areas in England.

Barrow Council’s executive director, Phil Huck, added: “Councils such as Barrow with a low taxation base and high levels of need have been disproportionately affected by cuts from central government.

“This has had a huge impact on the services we can provide to our residents. We look forward to the end of austerity – but for local government we don’t think it’s coming any time soon.”

Barrow expects to be told by the Government to hive off more money from its council tax and business rates.

However, no scheme has yet been fully spelled out which has left politicians and town hall leaders in the dark about how services will be paid for.