Local Government 2024-25 Provisional Outturn and 2025-26 Budget Estimates

The Chief Statistician has released figures on 2024-25 provisional outturn and 2025-26 budget estimates for revenue and capital expenditure on services provided by local authorities.

In 2024-25, net revenue expenditure on local authority services was provisionally reported as £15,760 million in 2024-25 and budgeted as £16,239 million for 2025-26.

This is an increase of 6.8% (£1,002 million) in 2024-25, compared to the net revenue expenditure figure of £14,758 million seen in 2023-24. However, much of this increase can be attributed to the baselining of £950.9 million into the General Revenue Grant, which switched this funding away from the category of specific grants. As Net Revenue Expenditure measures general funding and the use of Council’s own reserves, funding more money via the General Revenue Grant leads to a corresponding rise in Net Revenue Expenditure.

General fund net revenue expenditure is estimated to increase by a further 3.0% (£479 million) in 2025-26.

Education and Social Work continue to be the services with highest net revenue expenditure in both 2024-25 and 2025-26. These services account for around 81% of general fund net revenue expenditure.

Local authorities reported provisional general funding of £16,394 million in 2024-25, and budgeted for £17,358 million of general funding in 2025-26.

General Fund reserves (including Harbour Accounts) at 31 March 2025 were provisionally reported as £2,771 million, and budgeted to be £2,625 million at 31 March 2026. For context, General Fund reserve balances (including Harbour Accounts) were £1,584 million on 31 March 2020. Therefore, whilst reserve balances remain above pre-pandemic levels for Scotland, these are being brought down.

Capital expenditure across local authorities was provisionally reported as £4,479 million in 2024-25, and budgeted as £5,035 million in 2025-26. An increase of 1.6% in capital expenditure for Education is expected from 2024-25 to 2025-26, reflecting the roll out of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

The main sources of capital financing are grants & contributions and borrowing. Borrowing is expected to increase to £2,395 million in 2024-25, and then to £3,021 million in 2025-26. In 2024-25 and 2025-26, in-year borrowing is anticipated to remain as the primary source of capital financing.

Total external debt was provisionally reported as £22,916 million in 2024-25, and budgeted as £25,696 million in 2025-26, with local authorities continuing to remain under-borrowed.

Background

The Local Government 2024-25 Provisional Outturn and 2025-26 Budget Estimates publication summarises the 2024-25 provisional outturn and 2025-26 budget estimates for revenue and capital services provided by local authorities. This data is collected from local authorities annually via the Provisional Outturn and Budget Estimates (POBE) statistical return.

Further information on Local Government Finance statistics publications and data collections can be found on the Scottish Government website.

These statistics have been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.