Local Government 2023-24 Provisional Outturn and 2024-25 Budget Estimates

The Chief Statistician has released figures on 2023-24 provisional outturn and 2024-25 budget estimates for revenue and capital services provided by local authorities.

In 2023-24, net revenue expenditure on local authority services was provisionally reported as £14,627 million in 2023-24 and budgeted as £15,005 million for 2024-25. Compared to 2022-23 figures, net revenue expenditure is estimated to increase by 8.4% in 2023-24, and is estimated to increase by a further 2.6% in 2024-25.

Education and Social Work continue to be the services with highest net revenue expenditure in both 2023-24 and 2024-25. These services account for around 80% of general fund net revenue expenditure.

Local authorities reported provisional general funding of £14,910 million in 2023-24, and budgeted for £15,952 million of general funding in 2024-25.

General Fund reserves (including Harbour Accounts) at 31 March 2024 were provisionally reported as £2,930 million, and budgeted to be £2,676 million at 31 March 2025. 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 beginning to be brought down.

Capital expenditure across local authorities was provisionally reported as £3,916 million in 2023-24, and budgeted as £5,174 million in 2024-25. An increase of 71.4% in capital expenditure for Education is expected from 2023-24 to 2024-25, 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 £1,859 million in 2023-24, and then to £3,109 million in 2024-25. In 2023-24 and 2024-25, in-year borrowing is anticipated to overtake grants & contributions as the primary source of capital financing.

Total external debt was provisionally reported as £20,587 million in 2023-24, and budgeted as £23,508 million in 2024-25, with local authorities continuing to remain under-borrowed.

Background

The Local Government 2023-24 Provisional Outturn and 2024-25 Budget Estimates publication summarises the 2023-24 provisional outturn and 2024-25 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.