Mid and north Wales county councils have debts totalling more than a billion pounds, new research has found.

Amid fears that councils across the UK are on the verge of going bust, the BBC Shared Data Unit investigated the levels of debt at local authorities across Wales, England and Scotland.

For more than a decade, town hall chiefs across the UK have been encouraged to borrow funds to invest in local schemes and commercial properties.

But after recent high-profile bankruptcies of councils in England, data shows that the combined debt level UK-wide now stands at £97.8bn, with “fears that many authorities will go bust.”

The BBC Shared Data Unit analysis of data by the Department for Levelling Up shows that Ceredigion County Council has amassed debt of £106,867,000, with Gwynedd Council standing at £220,593,000, Powys County Council at £283,180,000, and Carmarthenshire County Council at £402,424,000.

In Ceredigion, the debt stands at £1,512 for each resident, with per person figures reaching £1,884 in Gwynedd, £2,120 in Powys, and £2,138 in Carmarthenshire.

The data shows that taking into account all types of local authorities, such as police and crime commissioners and combined authorities, the debt pile rises to £122bn.

The Wales-wide total debt was £5,684,341,000; with Swansea the highest and Bridgend the lowest of the 22 authorities.

For the past decade, councils UK-wide have been encouraged to make commercial investments to provide an alternative source of income aside from the usual mix of grants, council tax, rates and fees and charges.

Town halls across the country have bought hundreds of commercial assets, from shopping centres, to office parks, cinemas, energy companies and housing developments.

But council leaders, who have seen government grant funding reduce by 40 per cent in real terms since 2010, have had to borrow increasing amounts to pay for those investments.

The high levels of local authority debt will see residents face an "extreme and long-lasting" impact on local services, the Public Accounts Committee has said.

Dame Meg Hillier, the committee's chair, said some examples of debt were “staggering”.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “Councils are ultimately responsible for their own finances, but we are very clear they should not put taxpayers' money at risk by taking on excessive debt.

“The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act provides new powers for central government to step in when councils take excessive risk with borrowing and investment.

“We have also established the Office for Local Government to further improve accountability across the sector, which will help detect emerging risks and support councils to continue delivering key public services.”

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, said: “Councils have faced a choice of either accepting funding reductions and cutting services or making investments to try and protect them.

“This was an approach that was encouraged by the government.

“While councils have made investment decisions to help them replace funding shortfalls, the majority of council borrowing is focused on investing in projects that contribute to their local economies or help them provide core functions, such as housing and transport schemes.

“When making investments, councils are required to follow strict rules and assessments to ensure they invest wisely and manage the risk of their investments appropriately.

“The Government needs to come up with a long-term plan to sufficiently fund local services.”