RESIDENTS are being warned that council tax rises and further jobs losses could be on the horizon as a council looks at ways of making another £26.3m worth of cuts.

Members of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's cabinet have started working on the third phase of government-enforced spending cuts which need to be implemented from next year up to 2020.

The authority has already experienced a £62.43m reduction in government support and been forced to cut more than 1,000 council staff posts.

The ‘Shaping our Future 3’ programme will make recommendations on how to deliver services more efficiently and how changes might be made to the way services are provided.

And within it is a plan to hike council tax for the first time in two years, on top of annual increase to fees and charges and the 2 per cent adult social care levy, which was charged for the first time last year and is again likely to be imposed.

Council leader, Cllr Sue Jeffrey, said: “The scale of this is unprecedented – the council will have made spending cuts of nearly £90 million by the end of this decade and we have already lost over 1,000 staff.

“The smaller the organisation gets, the harder it is to cut and difficult decisions have to be made. But we will do our best to protect the services that are important to people.

“This means we will be asking more of our residents and communities and putting a new emphasis on driving out social value to benefit everyone. Making the most of our talent and ambition, using local businesses wherever we can, and working with our partners in the public sector to make everything we do as cost effective as possible.

“I am determined that we will continue provide the best possible services to the residents of Redcar and Cleveland despite the difficulties we face.”

Liberal democrat councillor Glyn Nightingale told members of the cabinet that he did not envy them the task of finding further savings.

"Austerity has already gone too far," he said. "I think it's inevitable that the Government is going to be looking to make further savings. Already the most vulnerable people in the country have been hit hard but they are going to be hit even harder by such a right wing party in Government."

A series of community workshops were held across the borough alongside an online survey for people to have their say on the initial proposals. More that 60 people attended the workshops and almost 300 responses were received from the online survey.

The proposals will be developed further before returning to Cabinet in autumn 2016 for approval for implementation as part of the overall budget setting process.