West Sussex County Council is owed more than £158m in unpaid invoices.

The eye watering figure was shared with councillors during a scrutiny committee meeting on last Friday.

A large portion of that figure relates to adult social care.

Jane Davey, the cabinet member for finance and property said it was having “a huge impact” on the council’s cash flow and blamed “slow payments” from organisations like NHS Surrey and Sussex Integrated Care Board (SSICB) as part of the problem.

A spokesman for SSICB said it was in “constructive dialogue with local authority colleagues about how to resolve this going forward”.