COUNCIL taxpayers in Craven could face a hike in bills to make up for budget cuts imposed by the coalition Government, council chiefs say.

The Government announced spending cuts of £137m nationally in its financial settlement last week - with North Yorkshire set to lose £21m from its budget.

And Craven District Council's 'initial analysis' shows that its funding has been in effect reduced by almost 28 per cent for the coming financial year, council chiefs say.

Keighley MP and Local Government Minister Kris Hopkins, who announced the settlement in the House of Commons, has insisted that no city and county council will have a loss in 'spending power' of more than 6.4 per cent.

But Ministers have been criticised for including other bodies' cash - such as funding from the NHS - in this spending power.

North Yorkshire County Council corporate director Gary Fielding said that the Government's figures were 'highly misleading' and 'blatantly not correct'.

And the council's deputy leader, Cllr Carl Les, said the cuts would make balancing the books "just as difficult as we anticipated. It confirms the accuracy of our planning, and emphasises the extremely difficult and challenging predicament in which we find ourselves.

"This has only served to reinforce the county council’s analysis that major savings are still required to meet the severe restraints on budgets, and that a rise in council tax remains necessary."

Councillors say that North Yorkshire is on track to save £94m over the four years ending in March, but the cuts mean that it will still have to save a further £73m over the next four years. This represents a cut in the council’s spending power of more than a third over eight years, they say.

Approval for the county council's budget will be asked for in February, and council chiefs say that - although no firm decisions have yet been made - its financial strategy is based on a rise in council tax of two per cent.

If the council does not increase council tax, it will therefore have to find a further £2.3m in savings above those already planned.

Craven District Council leader Cllr Richard Foster said the council was still looking into the implications of the budget, but that he was "very confident we can make it work".

He said: "There are no surprises - it's what we expected and wer are not planning on it affecting services... due to decisions we have already taken and some innovative ideas, we are in a position to present a balanced budget in February to the policy committee."

Meanwhile Bradford Council is facing having to deal with cuts of £19.9m, or 4.1 per cent of its budget.

Council leader David Green said that the council would have to find £34m of savings next year, and a further £130m by 2020 on current projections. "The Government looks at local authorities as the fall guy," he said.

Pendle councillors said the funding settlement was broadly what they were expecting and that they would be looking to make further savings.

Council leader Cllr Joe Cooney said: "We also welcome the news that the Government will again give additional funding to councils who choose to freeze their council tax, something we will consider carefully.

“Pendle Council has a strong track record in this, having frozen Pendle’s council tax for six years running."