The Funding of Local Government in Scotland, 2023-2024

Where do councils get their funding from?

In 2021-22 councils spent about £23 billion, that’s £4,300 per person in Scotland. They raised this mainly from four sources of income.

Service Income is income that councils receive directly linked to services they provide. It is treated separately and can only be used for the stated purpose, so this income is not considered in this publication. That leaves £14 billion of general funding.

The largest share of general funding was Scottish Government grant, which in 2021-22 was £9.0 billion, or 66 per cent of general funding.

Non-domestic Rates, paid mainly by businesses, raised £2.0 billion, or 15 per cent of general funding.

Council Tax raised £2.6 billion, or 19 per cent of councils’ general funding.

A complete analysis of Local Government spend is published in Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics. The figures in that publication are in more precise technical categories and so may appear to be different from those published here. However, the two sets of figures are consistent.