Councils will have to make huge cuts without more government funding, according to a senior Labour local authority leader.
Andrew Morgan, the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, said demands for social care, inflation and energy costs were eating into budgets.
It comes ahead of UK and Welsh government budgets before the new year.
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said the UK is “in a very difficult state” and help would be targeted.
Mr Morgan, the leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council since 2014, said he had “been there through austerity”.