The Local Government Association (LGA) has issued a stark warning to the chancellor ahead of the Autumn Statement next month.

In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the LGA highlighted a £4 billion funding gap over the next two years which means that councils will not have enough funding “simply to stand still”.

Welcoming the LGA submission, Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “Standing still is not an option for the adult social care sector. We need to move towards future-proofing our sector in light of growing demand and years of historic underfunding. At present, care providers are bearing the brunt of these implications. Although the call for the government to invest more money into local government is a simplistic one, it is the only answer to these mounting pressures.”

The LGA said budgeted spend on adult social care rose by £2.5 billion (12.8%) in 2023/24 with average fee rates for external home care increasing by 9.6% and supported living by 8.4% from 2022/23 to 2023/24 with a key driver being the 9.7% increase in the National Living Wage in 2023/24.

The number of people waiting for a care assessment, a care review of for their support or direct payment to start stood at over 430,000 as of March 2023, including over 80,000 people who have been waiting over six months with a 17% shift to unpaid carers between 2011 and 2021 being driven by people with high needs who would have in the past accessed care services.

In its letter, the LGA called on the government to ensure that all councils have sufficient funding to deliver their 2023/24 budgets, set balanced budgets for 2024/25 and develop medium-term financial strategies that are not characterised by substantial funding gaps.

The LGA also called for a “renewed focus on prevention to address existing and future demand for services such as social care, homelessness support and community safety”.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “We have made £5.1 billion of extra funding available to local authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement, making almost £60 billion available for the sector – up 9.4% on cash terms on 2022/2023. We continue to monitor pressures on all councils and we stand ready to talk to any council that is concerned about its financial position.

“Councils are ultimately responsible for the management of their own finances, but the government has been clear that they should not take excessive risk with taxpayers’ money. We have established the Office for Local Government to improve the accountability for performance across the sector.”