Essex County Council is braced for a tough year balancing the books after the government announced it would cut its grant to the authority by £49million this year.
County Hall's early assessments of the annual provisional local government finance settlement in 2015/2016, show facing a cut of around 15 per cent on its funding when compared to last year.
Council leader, Cllr David Finch, said that it will be 'tougher' for the council to remain 'financially robust'.
He said: "As a forward thinking authority we have worked hard over many years to have new and pioneering approaches in place to ensure we maintain a financially robust council that builds a better Essex for everyone
"This is going to get tougher, but we are working closely with our partners across the county in order to deal with these funding reductions.
"With our communities also stepping up and working with us to help improve the areas they live in or supporting elderly and vulnerable neighbours we can achieve our ambitions for Essex.
"Resilient communities are always important but especially at a time when councils simply cannot afford to do everything they used to do."
Cllr John Spence, cabinet member for finance, said: "We understand the government has to tackle the deficit but that does not detract from our responsibility both to balance the books and to provide the best possible service for the people of Essex.
"Every successive round of cuts makes the challenge harder.
"We have already secured so many efficiencies.
"We will continue to work creatively with our dedicated and innovative officers to find new solutions but make no mistake – it will be tough."
