Auditors have warned Kent County Council that it must take decisive action if it is to deal with a £51 million overspend in its budget.

The warning comes after the Conservative-controlled authority said earlier this week that unless it received a bailout from the government it risked bankruptcy “in a year or two’s time”.

Council leader Cllr Roger Gough (Con) signed a joint letter with Hampshire county council to the Prime Minister and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

They said their authorities needed “immediate help and a clear plan for long-term financial sustainability, if the two county councils are to avoid filing bankruptcy notices within the next year or so”.

Separately, the council’s external auditors delivered an ominous assessment of the authority’s plight which underlined the serious nature of the financial crisis at KCC.

In a report to the council's governance and audit committee on Tuesday, auditors say they have identified a "significant weakness" in its arrangements to manage the deficit.

“For Kent County Council the combination of inflationary pressures; higher than expected demand and non-delivery of savings have resulted in a forecasted £51m overspend by the end of quarter one 2022/2023,” it said.

The report made clear that the council faces pressures on all fronts, saying: “This deficit is not the result of a one-off transaction; rather it marks a significant deterioration in the underlying financial position of the authority.

"If decisive action is not taken or implemented the status quo is likely to take the authority into significant financial difficulties over the medium term.”

Auditors Grant Thornton say KCC could be at further risk if its arrangements for identifying and delivering savings are not "effective in ensuring financial sustainability”.

The council has indicated that it has as yet unidentified proposed savings to address the deficit.

Conservative county councillor Harry Rayner expressed concern about the financial challenges, saying that the deficit indicated that “it would appear that we have less than a good grip on this”.

He also said that councillors were being alerted late to the situation despite officers knowing about the financial deficit in July.

If the deficit was not dealt with, it would be added to next year’s budget – a situation that was not sustainable.

In the letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Cllr Gough said: “The problem is simple, the extra money we can raise from council tax and business rates barely covers our normal costs of inflation each year.

"This leaves major growth, particularly in adult and child social care, totally unfunded.

"This is not a medium-term problem that can be fixed with more one-off handouts to keep the sector limping along, it needs fundamental changes to the whole system of local government funding.”