Carlisle City Council leaders have warned that it is getting more difficult to balance their books every year.

Deputy leader Les Tickner said they are getting less money from Government annually, and there remains huge uncertainty about how funding will be distributed long-term.

As a result, he said they are having to hold more money back in reserves and cannot make proper forecasts for the future.

Carlisle city councillors met yesterday to discuss the 2019/ 20 budget, which will now go out to formal public consultation.

The council needs to make savings of £1.2m - having already cut £9m from its budget since 2010/11. The ruling Labour executive set out its plans, which include raising the authority’s share of council tax by just under two per cent.

This will be added to any increases agreed by Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Police to calculate the overall council tax charges from April 2019.

Dr Tickner, who holds the finance portfolio, stressed that they are not cutting services or making dramatic increases to charges, but warned that his job gets tougher every year.

Les: “It gets more difficult by the year to find further savings. It’s like having to paint the Forth Road Bridge and every year they take a pot of paint off you.”

Colin Glover, council leader, said each year central Government demands more savings - but the council has already reduced its workforce to half its former size over the past eight years.

“You hear of councils at breaking point. Yet in Carlisle we’ve been so effective at managing our budget, Government seems to think you can keep doing that. But it gets to a point where you can’t,” he explained.

At present, council services are funded through government grants, council tax and additional revenue, such as rent and assets.

From next year, the national funding system is set to change, but councils are still waiting to find out exactly how that will work - and crucially how much income they can expect to get.

Both councillors said this makes drawing up a long-term plans particularly difficult.

Dr Tickner said, having seen other councils struggle- including the high-profile financial crisis at Northamptonshire County Council - they are being extra cautious.

This includes increasing their reserves from £2m to a minimum of £3.3m. He added: “People might say we are building up a war chest for no reason. We are not. We do not know what the formula is going to be.”

Mr Glover said: “We are got going to let a Northamptonshire happen to Carlisle.

On council tax, Dr Tickner said they had no real choice but to increase it again this year - but stressed it was a very small amount: “We are keeping that to a minimum. It works out as £5 a year for a band D property.”

Mr Glover added: “We did freeze it for a few years but it put a lot of pressure on our budget.”

They added that they are also working to boost income from council-owned assets.