Anxious wait for Bradford Council as Government decides whether to help them avoid bankpuptcy

She says without it, the authority will have no choice but to issue a Section 114 notice - effectively declaring bankruptcy - as budget proposals are published on January 3 next year.

But a Government spokesman said it was "engaging” with the council, and will respond “in due course”.

Some councils which have issued the dreaded Section 114 notice - which legally forbids any non-essential spending - have done so in part due to poor political decision-making.

Birmingham, for example, with the equal pay scandal, Nottingham with the collapse of Robin Hood Energy, or Thurrock, which accumulated a vast property portfolio with what auditors called an “extreme” appetite for risk.

For Bradford, the exceptionality has been the severity of the rise in demand for – and cost of – children’s care.

While the majority of councils have seen a rise, the number of children in care in Bradford rose by 61 per cent between 2012 to 2022 while the rate of children in need increased by more than 60 per cent over a similar period.

The cost of providing placements for children has increased with residential placements going up from an average cost of £3,600 a week for each child in 2020-21 to an average £6,000 per week in 2023.

This means that the average cost for one placement each per year is now £312,000, which is similar to the annual council subsidy of a small leisure centre.

At a meeting to discuss the situation this week, Coun Hinchcliffe said: “We have got to the point, after 13 years of Tory austerity, that 87 per cent of the council’s spend is on adult and children’s social care. That leaves just 13 per cent for everything else. We’ve had a 60 per cent cut in spending in real terms in Bradford over the last 13 years – £350m a year.”

But Conservative opposition councillors accused the council of blaming everyone but themselves, arguing that other Councils have “rolled up their sleeves and got on” with Government cuts.

Chris Kinsella, finance director, told the meeting the gap in the current year’s budget was now £73m. The gap in next year’s budget was likely to rise to £103m.

Asked what she thought the chances were that the council would have to issue a Section 114 notice, Coun Hinchcliffe said: “It’s very much up to the Government.”

A Government spokesman said: “Since the council wrote to the department requesting exceptional financial support, we have been engaging regularly with them on their request and we will respond in due course. We stand ready to speak to any council that has concerns about its ability to manage its finances or faces pressures it has not planned for.”