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

Introduction

Local authorities are responsible for delivering a wide range of services, including education, social work, transport, housing, environmental and cultural services. In Scotland, local government primarily comprises of 32 councils, the boundaries of which are shown in Annex A. There are also:

• ten Valuation Joint Boards (VJBs), who provide valuation services to councils. Primarily, VJBs maintain the valuation roll for non-domestic properties and the Council Tax valuation list for domestic dwellings. These are then used as the basis for local taxation billing liability.
• seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs), established to lead on regional transport strategy and delivery by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005.
• the Tay Road Bridge Joint Board, which is responsible for the operation, management and maintenance of the Tay Road Bridge.

More information on local government in Scotland is available on the SG website.

Local government finance statistics are reported in the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics (SLGFS) publication. The latest SLGFS publication was published in March 2024 and provided figures for 2022-23.

Since publication, audited accounted have now been received for Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, East Lothian Council, Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, Orkney and Highland Pension Fund.  Unaudited accounts for 2022-23 remain for six authorities at time of writing and these are shown in Annex C.

Whilst the SLGFS 2022-23 publication has not been updated, the published source Local Financial Returns (LFR) workbooks for 2022-23 have been revised. The SLGFS figures in this publication are consistent with these revised LFR workbooks.

Please note, throughout the publication:

• all years refer to the relevant financial year running 1 April to 31 March;
• figures within tables / charts may not sum to the total exactly due to rounding;
• absolute zeroes are shown as '–' and rounded zeroes are shown as ‘0’;
• all figures are presented in cash terms, meaning they have not been adjusted for inflation;
• figures are presented on a funding basis, meaning local authorities have made adjustments to remove certain accounting transactions that have been charged to services, such as depreciation and pension costs;
• expenditure and income figures are presented as positive figures, however net expenditure figures may be presented as negative where gross income has exceeded gross expenditure and so the net position relates to income;
• General Fund figures include amounts relating to the Harbour Accounts for Orkney and Shetland Island Councils unless otherwise stated;
• ‘Roads & Transport’ includes amounts relating to Road Bridges;
• COVID-19 expenditure and service specific grants are recorded against the relevant subservice as far as possible, or against Central Services: Other where there is no appropriate subservice;
• COVID-19 related income received via GRG is included in the GRG income figure, not as service-specific income against specific subservices;
• income and expenditure associated with grants where the local authority was acting as an agent are not included in this publication.

Most of these additional boards are the collective responsibility of two or more councils – a list of local authority joint board membership is provided at Annex B. The Tay Road Bridge Joint Board comprises councillors from Dundee City, Fife and Angus; however, finance is provided directly from the Scottish Government (SG).

This publication summarises the 2023-24 provisional outturn and 2024-25 budget estimates for revenue and capital expenditure across the 50 local authorities described above. This publication focuses on Scotland-level figures only; however, workbooks containing the full source data from each local authority’s return are available as supporting files to this publication.

The provisional and budget figures have been collected via the Provisional Outturn and Budget Estimates (POBE) 2024 return. The continued co-operation of all 50 local authorities in completing these returns is gratefully acknowledged. These figures only reflect expenditure and income recognised in local authorities’ financial data, and do not include financial activity of any other local government agencies.

To provide some broader context, the figures in this publication are presented alongside the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) figures from 2020-21 to 2022-23. However, the following should be noted when interpreting comparisons between SLGFS figures, provisional outturn and budget estimates:

Provisional outturn figures are calculated before the end of the financial year. They reflect actual expenditure up to the time they were produced and forecasts of anticipated spend for the remainder of the year. The point in time that these figures are calculated varies between local authorities, but generally falls between December and February. This means that any significant movements in expenditure late in the year, as well as various end-of-year accounting transactions, will cause significant differences between these figures and future SLGFS figures. Budget estimates reflect local authorities’ financial plans for the current year, based on anticipated demand for services and resources available to deliver services, both of which are subject to change over the course of the year.