Budget pressure catastrophe warning by Welsh councils
re is a "potentially catastrophic" impact of rising inflation on council budgets in Wales, local authorities have warned.
Even with council tax rises, they estimate there will be a £802m black hole in less than three years.
Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) said every council was reporting an overspend in this financial year and budget gaps in future years.
It said councils faced "impossible decisions" with services at risk.
Rising costs, including energy, have added £257m to this year's budgets.
Inflation is the increase in the price of something over time so it means the cost of everything a council pays for, from fuel bills in schools to building materials, is going up by more than 10% a year at the current rate.
In an analysis, following a survey of all 22 local councils, the WLGA estimated another £527m of pressures will follow in 2023-24, rising to a cumulative £1.2bn by March 2025.
Home to school transport, school catering and energy costs were already causing pressure on budgets, with one council saying inflation had seen its school transport budget spike by £950,000.
Some councils had negotiated fixed-priced energy contracts which will help this winter but these are due to run out next year.
"Other than the experience of the early months of the pandemic, there is no precedent for pressures of this scale escalating so quickly," said report co-author Jon Rae, the WLGA resources director.  
"Without additional funding the risks to all local government services, including the larger ones of education and social care, cannot be understated."  
His report said that current estimates of pressures have "exploded" since the summer and, without further funding, local authorities face "impossible decisions".  
"Any return to austerity would be disastrous for the preventative services that local government provides and the people who rely on them, catastrophic for the NHS which relies on a well-funded care system and utterly demoralising for our workforce."