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

26th June 2024

The Chief Statistician has released figures on 2023-24 provisional outturn and 2024-25 budget estimates for revenue and capital services provided by local authorities.

In 2023-24, net revenue expenditure on local authority services was provisionally reported as £14,627 million in 2023-24 and budgeted as £15,005 million for 2024-25. Compared to 2022-23 figures, net revenue expenditure is estimated to increase by 8.4% in 2023-24, and is estimated to increase by a further 2.6% in 2024-25.

Education and Social Work continue to be the services with highest net revenue expenditure in both 2023-24 and 2024-25. These services account for around 80% of general fund net revenue expenditure.

Local authorities reported provisional general funding of £14,910 million in 2023-24, and budgeted for £15,952 million of general funding in 2024-25.

General Fund reserves (including Harbour Accounts) at 31 March 2024 were provisionally reported as £2,930 million, and budgeted to be £2,676 million at 31 March 2025. For context, General Fund reserve balances (including Harbour Accounts) 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 £3,916 million in 2023-24, and budgeted as £5,174 million in 2024-25. An increase of 71.4% in capital expenditure for Education is expected from 2023-24 to 2024-25, reflecting the roll out of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

The main sources of capital financing are grants & contributions and borrowing. Borrowing is expected to increase to £1,859 million in 2023-24, and then to £3,109 million in 2024-25. In 2023-24 and 2024-25, in-year borrowing is anticipated to overtake grants & contributions as the primary source of capital financing.

Total external debt was provisionally reported as £20,587 million in 2023-24, and budgeted as £23,508 million in 2024-25, with local authorities continuing to remain under-borrowed.

 

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