COUNCILS are facing such deep spending cuts their future role must be reassessed, a leading think tank has warned.

Economist Jo Armstrong, co-director of Fiscal Affairs Scotland called for an "honest and inclusive debate" about the services local authorities should be expected to provide.

She said councils were unlikely to be able to go on delivering key services, faced with a 10 per cent cut in funding from Scottish Government since 2009.

A new study by the think tank yesterday raised fresh fears about council cuts.

It warned local authorities would axe services they are not legally obliged to provide and increase costs for other services.

It said: "Seeking to charge service users more may be one option to help fill any funding gap.

"What seems more likely, is that non-statutory services will be at even greater risk than now, as will service quality levels that are deemed to be over and above the minimum necessary."

The study found that while Scottish Government spending on health has remained stable as a proportion of the overall Scottish budget since devolution, at 33 per cent, councils have received a smaller share, falling from 35 per cent to 29 per cent.

Ms Armstrong said: "As budgets continue to tighten, while demand continues to rise, it is increasingly hard to see how the continued delivery of many of Scotland's key public services can be achieved by local authorities securing additional efficiency savings alone.

"At a time of impending elections and the implementation of new tax and spending arrangements across the UK, there is a real need for an honest and inclusive debate on the future role of local government; just what is it we expect local authorities to deliver and how should funding for those chosen services be raised?"