Local Government in Scotland 2022-23 Provisional Outturn And 2023-24 Budget Estimates

20th June 2023

The Chief Statistician has released figures on 2022-23 provisional outturn and 2023-24 budget estimates for revenue and capital services provided by local authorities.

In 2022-23, net revenue expenditure on local authority services was provisionally reported as £13,741 million in 2022-23 and budgeted as £13,891 million for 2023-24. Compared to 2021-22 figures, net revenue expenditure is estimated to increase by 11.7% in 2022-23, and is estimated to increase by a further 1.1% in 2023-24.

Education and Social Work continue to be the services with highest net revenue expenditure in both 2022-23 and 2023-24. These services account for around 79% of general fund net revenue expenditure.

Local authorities reported provisional general funding of £14,186 million in 2022-23, and budgeted for £14,594 million of general funding in 2023-24.

General Fund reserves at 31 March 2023 were provisionally reported as £2,671 million, and budgeted to be £2,384 million at 31 March 2024. For context, General Fund reserve balances 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 £3,825 million in 2022-23, and budgeted as £4,927 million in 2023-24. The main sources of capital financing are grants and contributions, and borrowing. Borrowing is expected to increase to £1,653 million in 2022-23, and then to £2,845 million in 2023-24.

Total external debt was provisionally reported as £19,857 million in 2022-23, and budgeted as £21,981 million in 2023-24, with local authorities continuing to be under-borrowed.