Capital expenditure and financing: provisional outturn (2018-2019) and budget estimates (2019-2020)
This publication contains the 2018-2019 provisional outturn and 2019-2020 budget estimates for local authority capital expenditure, financing and prudential indicators on local authority external debt and the capital financing requirement.
2019-20 Budget Estimates
All local authorities were also asked to provide their budget estimates for capital expenditure in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The commentary in this publication will focus on the budget estimates for 2019-20 only, however the budget estimates for 2020-21 and 2021-22 are available in the workbook containing local authority source data from the return which will be made available at www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Publications/CPOBE.
Local authorities have set a budget for capital expenditure of £4,204 million in 2019-20. This is £730 million (21.0%) higher than the budget set for 2018-19.
As shown in Table 3, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Education and Roads & Transport account for around three-fifths (61%) of the capital budget.
Table 3: Budget Estimates for 2019-20 by Service, £ millions
| Service | Budget Estimate 2019-20 | % of total capital Expenditure | Change from Budget Estimate 2018-19 | % change from Budget Estimate 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Revenue Account (HRA) | 1,107 | 26% | 232 | 26.5% |
| Education | 869 | 21% | 191 | 28.2% |
| Roads & Transport | 607 | 14% | 51 | 9.2% |
| Planning & Development | 395 | 9% | 5 | 1.2% |
| Culture & Related Services | 161 | 4% | -29 | -15.2% |
| Environmental Services | 386 | 9% | 246 | 175.7% |
| All other expenditure[3] | 679 | 16% | 34 | 5.2% |
| Total Capital Expenditure | 4,204 | 100% | 730 | 21% |
Local authorities are planning to finance almost half (47%) of their 2019-20 capital programme by borrowing, and three-tenths (30%) using Scottish Government Grants. The remaining expenditure will be financed by a combination of other grants, capital receipts, capital fund and current revenue (Table 4).
Table 4: Budgeted financing of capital expenditure in 2019-20, £ millions
| Source of financing | Amount of financing | % of total capital expenditure financed |
|---|---|---|
| Borrowing | 1,982 | 47% |
| Scottish Government Grants | 1,275 | 30% |
| Other Grants | 232 | 6% |
| All other financing [4] | 715 | 17% |
| Total Capital Financing | 4,204 | 100% |
This budget would increase the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR) by £1,590 million (8.7%) over 2019-20, from £18,176 on 1 April 2019 to £19,766 million on 31 March 2019. Total External Debt is budgeted to increase by £1,449 million (8.4%), from £17,254 million on 1 April 2019 to £18,703 million on 31 March 2020.
Total External Debt is therefore budgeted to be 95% of CFR which suggests that local authorities are planning to continue to be under-borrowed, see Figure 1.
Figure 1: CFR and Total External Debt on 31 March, 2009 to 2020, £ millions
Contact
Email: lgfstats@gov.scot
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