Local Government 2022-23 Provisional Outturn and 2023-24 Budget Estimates

The Chief Statistician has released figures on 2022-23 provisional outturn and 2023-24 budget estimates for revenue and capital services provided by local authorities.

In 2022-23, net revenue expenditure on local authority services was provisionally reported as £13,741 million in 2022-23 and budgeted as £13,891 million for 2023-24. Compared to 2021-22 figures, net revenue expenditure is estimated to increase by 11.7% in 2022-23, and is estimated to increase by a further 1.1% in 2023-24.

Education and Social Work continue to be the services with highest net revenue expenditure in both 2022-23 and 2023-24. These services account for around 79% of general fund net revenue expenditure.

Local authorities reported provisional general funding of £14,186 million in 2022-23, and budgeted for £14,594 million of general funding in 2023-24. 

General Fund reserves at 31 March 2023 were provisionally reported as £2,671 million, and budgeted to be £2,384 million at 31 March 2024. For context, General Fund reserve balances were £1,584 million on 31 March 2020. Therefore, whilst reserve balances remain above pre-pandemic levels for Scotland, these are beginning to be brought down.

Capital expenditure across local authorities was provisionally reported as £3,825 million in 2022-23, and budgeted as £4,927 million in 2023-24. The main sources of capital financing are grants and contributions, and borrowing. Borrowing is expected to increase to £1,653 million in 2022-23, and then to £2,845 million in 2023-24.  

Total external debt was provisionally reported as £19,857 million in 2022-23, and budgeted as £21,981 million in 2023-24, with local authorities continuing to be under-borrowed.

Background

The Local Government 2022-23 Provisional Outturn and 2023-24 Budget Estimates publication summarises the 2022-23 provisional outturn and 2023-24 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.