The Funding of Local Government in Scotland, 2023-2024

How did we calculate each council’s fair share of the available funding?

The first part of the process was to calculate each council’s fair share of the £14.5 billion. To do this each service area was considered separately. For 2023-24 there were 151 such areas considered.

For example, within Education there were 32 different areas considered, ranging from childcare through to adult education. They varied in size, from the £1.2 billion pot for secondary school teaching, to the £0.5 million pot for Further Education travel responsibilities in some areas. In most cases, those totals are just kept constant each year.

You can see a full list of the 151 areas, together with their allocations, in the Local Government Finance Green Book, which is an Annex to this publication. The Green Book is available online at

www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-green-book-2023-24/

It is very important to note that the amounts in each service area are not spending targets. They are simply a way of dividing up the £14.5 billion so that each service area is considered.

Councils make spending decisions based on local needs. They are generally not expected to spend the amounts distributed on each service.

The actual amounts spent by councils in each service area are therefore different from the above chart.