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"The proposals risk having an adverse impact on local roads, increasing traffic, and pumping out more carbon emissions and making air pollution worse."

Six out of 10 retailers in some areas are breaking the law on underage knife sales with councils warning that a lack of funding for enforcement activity will make tackling the knife crime epidemic a huge challenge.

Vital public health services such as drug and alcohol treatment, early years and school aged support, weight management and sexual health services need urgent investment in the Spending Review if the country is to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic, councils say today.

"Councils in England face an overall funding gap that is expected to exceed £5 billion 2020. Faced with ongoing and significant funding pressures, the LGA said councils will struggle to maintain current subsidies for bus routes across the country."

More than a million young people in England could be missing formal full-time education, fuelled by significant gaps in education legislation, rising child support needs and a lack of funding.

Referrals of potential victims of modern slavery made by councils have soared ninefold in five years, new figures show, highlighting the demands on local authority services already under significant pressure.

School-based counselling needs to be available and fully funded by the Government in all state funded secondary schools and academies to help support rising numbers of children and young people reporting mental health issues during COVID-19, the Local Government Association urges today.

“If we are to come out of this pandemic with a society that is truly levelled up, the vital services that councils provide must be at the heart of it."

The report, based on 22 effective HWBs across the country, shows the boards are driving health and social care integration and making sure that prevention is at the heart of this - helping to keep people well in the first place, rather than managing ill health better.

Over 9.5 million potholes could be repaired or prevented by councils with the funding lost from local road maintenance budgets this year – the equivalent of 64,000 repairs in every local council area.