Services in York will be cut - and some may be stopped completely - as the city faces "some of the most significant challenges it has ever experienced".

City of York Council chiefs issued the warning after Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt issued his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

The council said there was nothing in the statement which eased pressures on local council budgets across the UK.

It said the council had a new four-year financial plan, designed to help it meet both its budgetary challenges, and the priorities of the council’s new council plan, One City For All.

But it warned that over the next four years, delivery of the financial strategy would "be extremely challenging for residents, partners, members, and officers".

The level of savings required would "inevitably require reductions in service levels and may result in some services stopping completely" amid a budget gap of £40 million over the next four years, it added.

Councillor Claire Douglas, leader of the council, said: “There is nothing in this Autumn Statement which gets anywhere near easing the pressures on local council budgets across the UK.

"We have recently seen BBC reports that one in 10 of England’s county councils is facing effective bankruptcy, and that follows on from the crises we have already seen in other councils.

"We are absolutely committed to the promises we agreed as a council in the new four-year plan, ‘One City for All’, but it is increasingly clear that if we are to maintain a balanced budget and if we are to keep this council afloat, we need robust financial management, clear priorities and a focus on cost control.

“There will have to be cuts, and a root and branch challenge to all council expenditure. There will have to be a hard look at the levels of capital investment. We will deliver our plan - we are already delivering our plan, and that includes supporting people who are being hit hard by the cost of living crisis - but we cannot do that alone, and we cannot do that with the financial resources we have now.”

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Councillor Katie Lomas, executive member for finance, performance, major projects and equalities, said the challenges facing local government were "significant and worsening".

She said: "In York we have the added problem of an historically low base for our income, and that means the council will have to make many difficult decisions in the coming years.

"Uncertainty regarding our funding makes long term planning difficult, so the council will need to be flexible in its approach to financial planning."

Cllr Lomas said Wednesday's Autumn Statement, beyond recovery of full planning costs, was "entirely silent on the crisis in local government funding".

She added: “As a result, it’s important that nobody underestimates the scale of the challenge ahead. For York it means we can’t continue to do everything and deliver a balanced budget. We must identify savings, and opportunities to work in partnership with others.

"We will need to continually review and refine our medium term financial strategy, as we understand Government announcements on funding. But the people of York need to be in no doubt, since 2010/11 we have endured a reduction of 28.5 per cent in real terms which, when you include funding for other public services, leaves us bottom of the funding table for local services.

"Government must do a lot more to support us, and if the extra help doesn’t come, we have some very serious problems to address.”