Accredited official statistics

Local authority revenue expenditure and financing: 2024-25 budget, England

Published 20 June 2024

Applies to England

1. In this release:

1.1 Total Service Expenditure

• Local authority net current expenditure on services is budgeted to be £127.1 billion in 2024-25. This is £8.6 billion (7.3%) higher in real terms than was budgeted for 2023-24.

Within this, the following were the largest changes in budgeted service expenditure:

• Education services net expenditure is budgeted to total £41.8 billion in 2024-25, £2.7 billion (+6.9%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2023-24. This was largely due to a real terms increase of £1.9 billion (+46%) in Early Years expenditure.

• Adult Social Care net expenditure (excluding funding via NHS) is budgeted to be £24.5 billion, £2.1 billion (+9.2%) higher in real terms than the amount budgeted for 2023-24. There is a corresponding real terms increase of £1.8 billion in social care grant funding compared to 2023-24.

• Children’s Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to be £14.2 billion in 2024-25, £1.4 billion (+11%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2023-24.

• Police services net expenditure is budgeted to be £16.6 billion for 2024-25, an increase in real terms of £1.3 billion (+8.6%) from 2023-24.

1.2 Revenue Expenditure

• The total of the wider measure of revenue expenditure is budgeted to be £130.9 billion in 2024-25. This is £8.2 billion (6.7%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2023-24.

Release date: 20 June 2024
Date of next release: Late June 2025
Responsible Statistician: Gavin Sayer
Contact: lgf1.revenue@levellingup.gov.uk
Media enquiries: NewsDesk@levellingup.gov.uk

2. Introduction

This Statistical Release, and all the associated tables, presents Accredited Official Statistics on budgeted revenue expenditure for local authorities in England for the financial year 2024-25. This release includes detail on how much authorities are budgeting to spend across the services they provide, and the main sources of income to finance this expenditure.

2.1 Revenue Account returns and response rate

The information is compiled from Revenue Account (RA) budget returns submitted to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) by local authorities in England. This information is then validated by DLUHC and any apparent inconsistencies and outliers are sent back to authorities for review and explanation.

This publication is based on returns from 395 (96%) local authorities in England. As at the early June cut-off for inclusion in this publication, sixteen authorities had not submitted data in time (Babergh, Birmingham, Brentwood, Bromsgrove, Camden, Colchester, High Peak, Islington, Mid Suffolk, North East Combined Authority, North Yorkshire, Redditch, Richmond upon Thames, Staffordshire Moorlands, Warwick, Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner).

Estimated England totals have been calculated using a grossing methodology. This works by calculating scaling factors drawn from sources where there was data for all authorities, principally from previous years’ budget data, as well as directly from grant allocations where these were readily available for 2024-25.

2.2 Key contextual information

Functions and responsibilities of local government can change from year to year, so comparisons between financial years may potentially not be wholly valid, but where major changes occur these are highlighted in the release.

Figures in this report and the associated tables are collected and reported as net current expenditure. So, for example, a decrease may be driven by decreases in expenditure or increases in fees or other income relating to a category of services.

Figures have been adjusted to real terms using the GDP Deflator, which is a general purpose and widely-used deflator. It is sourced from the Office for National Statistics’ National Accounts, and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast. Its values were +6.54% during 2023-24 and +0.80% in 2024-25. We continue to average the figures for 2020-21 and 2021-22 (both to +2.27%) to remove an exceptional and unrepresentative fluctuation in this source over those two years.

Definitions of terms used in this release can be found toward the end of this document. The full definitions of what is included in each service category and guidance notes can be found in the forms section of our website.

2.3 Please tell us how you use the data

We are keen to know of all the types of uses made of these and related data (e.g. also Revenue Outturn and Quarterly Revenue Update). Please feel free to send us a brief description at lgf1.revenue@levellingup.gov.uk, preferably with email subject: ‘How we use these data’. Please also feel free to send us any feedback and suggestions.

3. Local Authority Expenditure

Most local authority revenue expenditure can be divided into different service areas which sum to ‘Total Service Expenditure’. This is a net figure calculated as total expenditure minus total income that is specific to each service.

3.1 Service Expenditure

Table 1 shows budget and outturn total service expenditure for the main areas of spend over recent years in real terms (values adjusted to 2024-25 prices), as are the following figures.

Following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, total service (net current) expenditure in 2020-21 increased to £124.6 billion (in 2024-25 prices). Service expenditure decreased by 1.5% in 2021-22, and then by 0.6% in 2022-23. Budgeted Total Service Expenditure increased by 1.9% for 2023-24 and by a further 7.3% for 2024-25.

Within this, the following are the most notable changes in budgeted service expenditure (in real terms):

• Children’s Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to increase in real terms by +£1.4 billion (+11%) from 2023-24 to £14.2 billion in 2024-25. This increase was predominantly the result of real terms increases to two categories of children’s services: +£933 million on looked after children and +£277 million on children and young people’s safeguarding.

• Adult Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to be £24.5 billion, +£2.1 billion (+9.2%) higher in real terms than 2023-24. There is a corresponding real terms increase of £1.8 billion in social care grant funding compared to 2023-24.

• Budgeted net current expenditure on education services for 2024-25 was £41.8 billion. This was £2.7 billion (6.9%) higher than the budget for 2023-24. This was largely due to a real terms increase of £1.9 billion (+46%) on budgeted Early Years expenditure following changes to the Early Years entitlements and funding.

• Police services net expenditure is budgeted to be £16.6 billion for 2024-25, an increase in real terms of £1.3 billion (+8.6%) from 2023-24.

Other notable increases are:

• Housing Services net expenditure is budgeted to total £2.5 billion, £363 million (+17%) higher in real terms than was budgeted for in 2023-24. Within this, there was an increase of £348 million (+32%) in the expenditure budgeted for homelessness services. N.B This does not include costs of temporary accommodation reclaimed from central government.

• Expenditure on Planning and Development services is budgeted to total £2.0 billion in 2024-25, an increase of £357 million (+22%) in real terms. Much of this increase is the result of large increases (figures not adjusted for inflation) for West Midlands Combined Authority (+£83 million), Greater London Authority (+£64 million) and West Yorkshire Combined Authority (+£38 million).

Table 1a: General Fund Revenue Account: Outturn 2020-21 to 2022-23 and budget 2023-24 to 2024-25 (real terms)

£ million – adjusted for inflation, and are shown in 2024-25 prices. [note 4]

Service Category	2020-21 (outturn)	2021-22 (R) (outturn)	2022-23 (outturn)	2023-24 (Budget)	2024-25 (Budget)
Education [note 1]	39,167	39,938	39,888	39,075	41,754
Highways and transport	9,196	6,111	5,122	5,253	5,130
Highways and transport services (excl GLA)	4,179	3,432	3,346	3,466	3,700
Highways and transport services (GLA only)	5,017	2,679	1,776	1,787	1,429
Children’s Social Care	12,305	12,920	13,784	12,773	14,167
Adult Social Care [note 2]	21,938	21,749	22,044	22,442	24,507
Public Health [note 3]	4,446	4,852	4,115	3,796	3,945
Housing (excluding Housing Revenue Account)	2,404	2,498	2,452	2,163	2,526
of which:
Homelessness	1,183	1,238	1,341	1,083	1,431
Cultural, environmental and planning	11,848	11,473	11,458	10,538	11,311
Police	15,337	15,599	15,701	15,239	16,553
Fire & rescue	2,572	2,599	2,602	2,653	2,851
Central services	4,779	4,689	4,541	3,379	3,314
Other Services	608	292	215	1,184	1,039
Total Service Expenditure	124,600	122,719	121,922	118,495	127,097

Notes:

1. Expenditure on education is not comparable due to those schools that changed their status to became academies which are centrally funded rather than funded via local authorities.
2. These figures exclude transfers from the NHS (including Better Care Fund).
3. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 transferred substantial duties to local authorities from 2013-14 to protect and improve the public’s health, including for ages 0-5 from mid 2015-16.
4. The figures in this table, as well as all service expenditure figures in the Revenue Account Budget data collection, are expenditure that are net of income from sales, fees and charges. Therefore higher net expenditure can be the result of increased expenditure and/or reduced sales/fees/charges income.

Chart A shows the proportion of local authority service expenditure by service. This covers expenditure by councils, combined authorities and single-purpose local authorities, including Police.

Education funding, which is ring-fenced, is budgeted to account for 33% of this total. Adult Social Care and Children’s social care are also large elements of council expenditure, and this expenditure accounts for 19% and 11% across all expenditure of all authorities.

Chart A: Proportion of budgeted service expenditure by service, England, 2024-25

(a)‘Other’ includes Highways and Transport, Public Health, Fire and Rescue, Central services and other services.

3.2 Revenue Expenditure and Non-Current Expenditure

Revenue expenditure involves accounting for other current expenditure in addition to service expenditure, and non-current expenditure.

Other current expenditure includes housing benefits paid to residents, any money passed down to parish councils through local precepts and any additional levies and adjustments charged during the year.

Non-current expenditure includes financial payments necessary to balance local authorities’ budgets; generally expenditure where the cash impact falls in one year but the cost is spread over more than one year.

Figures included in non-current expenditure also include interactions with local authority accounts other than the Revenue Account. The largest of these are with the capital account. The main interactions are capital financing (interest payments and leases) and CERA (capital expenditure charged to the Revenue Account).

Total Revenue Expenditure by local authorities in England is budgeted to be £130.9 billion in 2024-25, 6.7% higher in real terms than the 2023-24 budget.

Table 2a: Estimated net current expenditure by service, England, 2023-24 and 2024-25

£ million – adjusted for inflation, and shown in 2024-25 prices.

Service Category	Net current expenditure [note 5] 2023-24	Net current expenditure [note 5] 2024-25	change (£m)	change (%)
Education services	39,075	41,754	2,679	6.9
Highways and transport services	5,253	5,130	-124	-2.4
Highways and transport services (excl. GLA)	3,466	3,700	234	6.7
Highways and transport services (GLA only)	1,787	1,429	-358	-20
Children’s Social Care services	12,773	14,167	1,395	10.9
Adult Social Care services	22,442	24,507	2,065	9.2
Public Health services	3,796	3,945	149	3.9
Housing services (excluding Housing Revenue Account)	2,163	2,526	363	16.8
of which:
Homelessness	1,083	1,431	348	32.1
Cultural, environmental and planning services	10,538	11,311	773	7.3
of which:
Cultural services	2,486	2,545	59	2.4
Environmental services	6,413	6,769	356	5.6
Planning and         development services	1,640	1,997	357	21.8
Police services	15,239	16,553	1,313	8.6
Fire and rescue services	2,653	2,851	198	7.5
Central services	3,379	3,314	-64	-1.9
Other Services	1,184	1,039	-145	-12.2
Total Service Expenditure	118,495	127,097	8,602	7.3
precepts, levies, trading accounts and adjustments
Housing Benefits [note 1]	14,077	13,470	-607	-4.3
Parish Precepts	710	774	63	8.9
Levies [note 2]	33	12	-22	-65.2
Trading Account         Adjustments and Other         Adjustments [note 3]	-356	-249	107	-30
Non Current Expenditure and External Receipts	-16,015	-15,826	189	-1.2
of which:
Capital expenditure         charged to Revenue         Account (CERA)	1,919	2,024	104	5.4
Housing Benefits         Subsidies	-11,080	-10,466	614	-5.5
Community Infrastructure         Levy (CIL)	-152	-155	-3	1.7
Netting off expenditure         capitalised by a direction         under Section 16(2)b	-248	-456	-209	84.2
Appropriations         to(+)/from(-) dedicated         schools grant adjustment         account	-175	-468	-293	167.9
Capital financing and debt Servicing [note 4]	6,120	6,515	395	6.5
Revenue Expenditure	122,643	130,869	8,226	6.7

Notes:

1. Includes all Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Housing Benefits.
2. Includes ‘Integrated Transport Authority levy’, ‘Waste Disposal Authority levy’, ‘London Pensions Fund Authority levy’ and ‘Other levies’.
3. Includes ‘External Trading Accounts’, ‘Internal Trading Accounts’, ‘Capital items accounted for in External Trading Accounts’, ‘Capital items accounted for in Internal Trading Accounts’, ’Adjustments to net current expenditure’, and ‘Appropriations to/from Accumulated Absences Account’.
4. Includes provision for repayment of principal, leasing payments, external interest payments and HRA item 8 interest payments and receipts.
5. The figures in this table, as well as all service expenditure figures in the Revenue Account Budget data collection, are expenditure that are net of income from sales, fees and charges. Therefore higher net expenditure can be the result of increased expenditure and/or reduced sales/fees/charges income.

4. Revenue Expenditure Financing

This section outlines the different funding streams that finance local authorities’ expenditure and how these are forecast to differ for 2024-25 from what was budgeted for 2023-24.

Authorities also receive income from sales, fees and charges. The Revenue Account Budget (‘RA’) data return collects expenditure for detailed categories of services that is already net of sales, fees and charges income. While sales, fees and charges income is not identified separately in the RA budget return, it is reported and published separately in the annual Revenue Outturn returns.

Tables 3 and 4 below show how local authorities intend to finance revenue expenditure.

Central Government funding comprises funding announced in the annual Local Government Finance Settlement plus grants from a number of government departments.

Central government grants are expected to account for 51% of Revenue Expenditure (or 52% excluding appropriations from reserves), while council tax accounted for 31%, and the majority of the remainder to be financed through locally retained business rates.

Central government grants are expected to total £67.3 billion in 2024-25. This is £5.2 billion (+8.3%) higher in real terms than was reported in 2023-24 budget data. The largest components within this change were:

i) Dedicated Schools Grant: +£1.7 billion (+5.5%) higher in real terms than in 2023-24. Much of this increase relates to the increase in Early Years entitlement and funding.

ii) Social Care Support Grant +£1.2 billion (+31%) higher in real terms compared to 2023-24, and

iii) Adult Social Care Market and Sustainability Improvement Fund Grant +£495 million (+89%) higher in real terms compared to 2023-24.

Income from grants for 2024-25 as reported by local authorities includes: £34.4bn from the combination of Dedicated Schools Grant, the Pupil Premium and Infants Free School Meals; Police Grant (£9.4bn); and Public Health Grant (£3.4bn).

Table 3a: Budgeted revenue expenditure and financing, England, 2023-24 to 2024-25 (real terms)

£ million – adjusted for inflation, and are shown in 2024-25 prices.

Service Category	Net current expenditure 2023-24	Net current expenditure 2024-25	change (£m)	change (%)
Revenue expenditure [note 1] Financed by:	122,643	130,869	8,226	6.7
Total Government Grants [note 2] of which:	62,153	67,314	5,162	8.3
Specific grants inside     AEF     Including:	51,273	55,789	4,516	8.8
Dedicated Schools         Grant (DSG)	31,219	32,931	1,712	5.5
Pupil Premium Grant	1,204	1,163	-41	-3.4
Universal Infants Free         School Meals	274	271	-3	-1.1
Public Health Grant	3,287	3,378	90	2.7
Social Care Support         Grant	3,840	5,017	1,177	30.7
Improved Better Care         Fund	2,096	2,025	-71	-3.4
New Homes Bonus	291	290	-1	-0.4
The Private Finance         Initiative (PFI)	1,202	1,199	-3	-0.3
ASC Market         Sustainability and         Improvement Fund	555	1,050	495	89.2
Services Grant	476	90	-386	-81.1
Adult Social Care         Discharge Fund	292	500	208	71.2
Other grants inside AEF	6,083	7,271	1,187	19.5
Revenue Support Grant	1,979	2,123	144	7.3
Police grant	8,900	9,403	503	5.6
Council tax requirement [note 3]	39,037	41,213	2,176	5.6
Retained income from Business Rate Retention Scheme	18,783	20,398	1,614	8.6
Appropriations to (-)/ from (+) revenue reserves [note 4]	2,197	1,631	-567	-25.8
Other items [note 5]	330	422	93	28.1

Notes:

1. The financing elements do not sum exactly to the Revenue expenditure total (a difference of £142million, or 0.1% of revenue expenditure) because their grossing up to England figures was necessarily done separately to the grossing for all expenditure figures.
2. Figures as reported by local authorities. These may differ from allocations amounts despite data collection forms having been pre-populated with allocations data for larger grants.
3. Increases can be due to changes in both tax base and bills. A small number of queries challenging differences from the CTR return were unanswered at the time of publication.
4. Due to legal and accountancy requirements, COVID business rates reliefs paid during 2020-21 and 2021-22 are shown as passing through reserves. This has been adjusted for as far as possible. See footnotes in table 4 for further details.
5. This comprises line 980 Council tax net collection fund deficits / surpluses from the previous year, plus line 985 other items where business rates surpluses/deficits have been recorded, and for 2023-24 and a balancing item of £141.7million arising from the separate grossing of the figures of the components in the financing section.

Table 4a: Financing of revenue expenditure, England, outturn 2020-21 to 2022-23 and budget 2023-24 to 2024-25

£ million – adjusted for inflation, and shown in 2024-25 prices.

Year	Revenue Expenditure [note 1]	Government Grants [note 2]	% of Total [note 3]	Retained income from Business Rate Retention Scheme [note 4],[note 5]	Council Tax [note 6]	Locally retained income	% of Total [note 3]	Appropriations from(+) reserves excluding COVID BR relief grant [note 4],[note 5]	Other Items [note 7]
2020-21 (Outturn)	128,533	77,045	56.8	19,771	38,852	58,623	43.2	-7,256	168
2021-22 (R) (Outturn)	127,449	72,277	54.8	20,249	39,474	59,723	45.2	-3,546	-1,058
2022-23 (Outturn)	125,880	67,213	54.2	17,691	39,000	56,692	45.8	1,890	1
2023-24 (Budget)	122,643	62,153	51.8	18,783	39,037	57,821	48.2	2,197	330
2024-25 (Budget)	130,869	67,314	52.2	20,398	41,213	61,611	47.8	1,631	422

Notes:

1. The financing elements do not sum exactly to the Revenue expenditure total (a difference of £142 million for 2023-24 and £110 million in 2024-25 (both 0.1% of revenue expenditure)). This occurs because the estimation for the authorities from which we had received no data; this grossing up to England figures is necessarily done separately to the grossing for all expenditure figures, and a slight mismatch is expected.
2. Includes ‘Specific grants inside AEF’, ‘Revenue Support Grant’ and ‘Police Grant’. Where COVID Grants had unusual timing effects for Outturn 2020-21 and 2021-22 the grants totals and corresponding reserves movements have been adjusted to make the figures comparable to other years.
3. Percentage of total expenditure excluding use of reserves and council tax collection fund surplus and other items.
4. The timing of the payment of COVID business rate relief grants impacted the reported retained income from business rates retention scheme. These items have been adjusted by moving relevant amounts from Appropriations from reserves onto retained business rates, except for 2021-22 budget figures which resulted in a lower figure for business rates income, and a correspondingly higher figure of income appropriated from reserves. Please note that some uncertainty remains as to the accuracy of these reported figures. For further details see the Revenue Outturn 2021-22 and 2022-23 statistical releases and technical notes.
5. Whereas normally business rate relief grants are known before the forecasting of business rates income in the NNDR1 process, during both 2020-21 and 2021-22 substantial further reliefs were announced subsequently. The prescribed accounting treatment included recording these in reserves until the following year. Due to this and the scope for interactions with the collection fund to complete over a longer period, care is needed when interpreting the reserves and retained business rate retention scheme incomes figures in this table.
6. The increase in council tax receipts reflects the combination of increases of bills and the change in tax base (i.e. the effective number of households due to pay). Council Tax Requirement is a budgeted figure, and so was not affected by lower income as a result of COVID local council tax support grants and reductions.
7. Other items include any income from inter-authority transfers and net collection fund surpluses(+)/deficits(-) from the previous year.

5. Accompanying tables

5.1 Symbols used

[x]  =   not available
0    =   zero or negligible
-      =   not relevant
M   =   RA return not received in time for publication. England totals have been             estimated by also drawing on grant allocations, where known, or the proportions             within the previous year’s data
(R)  =   Revised since the last statistical release

Rounding

Where figures have been rounded, there may be a slight discrepancy between the total and the sum of constituent parts.

5.2 Tables

This release does not include summary tables by class of local authority. Local authority classes are shown in the accompanying dropdown tables presenting detailed revenue expenditure and financing figures for 2024-25 for all local authorities are available to download alongside this release. Please note that 16 local authorities across 6 classes of authority had still not submitted data in time for the publication (eight weeks after the deadline).

These tables present all revenue information, by local authority, in a similar format as returned to DLUHC. This data forms the basis of the tables in this release.

These tables can be accessed at Local Authority Revenue Expenditure and Financing.

RA Part 1

Revenue Account Budget part 1 – contains all revenue expenditure and financing categories

RA Part 2

Revenue Account Budget part 2 – contains all other sections including reserves levels, local council support revenue foregone, capital items, and the investment properties memorandum section.

SG

Specific and Special Revenue Grants

6. Accredited Official Statistics status

These statistics are Accredited Official Statistics. This status means that these statistics comply with the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited Official Statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website. The UK Statistical System

Information about statistics at DLUHC is available via the Department’s website: Statistics at DLUHC

7. Technical Notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details. This can be found at: Local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2024 to 2025 budget England

8. Definitions

The most relevant terms for this release are explained below.

Aggregate External Finance – This is the total amount of grant provided to finance all local government expenditure, excluding that subject to separate arrangements under statutory schemes, rent allowances and rebates and council tax benefit, which are funded by specific grants outside Aggregate External Finance.

Central Government Grants – The biggest source of funding that local authorities receive is from central government. This is made up from ‘specific’ grants and a general grant (also called the Revenue Support Grant). Central government grant money pays for capital projects, such as roads or school buildings, as well as revenue spending, such as the cost of maintaining council housing and running services, including employee wages.

Central Services – These are services organised on a corporate basis that support the delivery of services to the public. Central services include building costs, administration and IT.

Council Tax Requirement – The amount of revenue a local authority needs to raise through council tax, (its council tax requirement) is calculated by deducting from its planned spending, any funding from reserves, income it expects to raise, and funding it will receive from the Government.

Current Expenditure – This is the cost of running local authority services within the financial year. This includes the staffing, heating, lighting and cleaning, together with expenditure on goods and services consumed within the year. This expenditure is offset by income from sales, fees and charges and other (non-grant) income, which gives total net current expenditure. Total net current expenditure also includes payments made by local authorities on behalf of central government, under statutory schemes and the payment of rent allowances and rebates. Such payments are fully funded by central government through specific grants outside Aggregate External Finance.

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) – There was a change in the funding of specific and formula grants in 2006-07 largely due to changes in the way that expenditure on schools is funded. From 2006-07, local authorities receive school funding through specific grant rather than funding previously included in formula grant.

Funding through the Settlement Grant – This is the main channel of government funding. This includes Retained income from the Rate Retention Scheme, Revenue Support Grant, and Police Grant. The distribution is determined by the Formula spending shares formulae, also taking account of authorities’ relative ability to raise council tax and the floor damping mechanism. There are no restrictions on what local government can spend on it.

Greater London Authority (GLA) Group – This includes the GLA (the Mayor of London and London Assembly) and it’s five constituent functional bodies; the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), the London Fire Commissioner (LFC), Transport for London (TLF), the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) which administers Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC). Transactions in their General Fund Revenue Account are reported by the GLA and the five functional bodies as a group.

Housing Revenue Account – The HRA is a local authority statutory account, it contains all the spending and income related to the housing stock owned by the council. Mandatory Housing Benefit – This is financial help given to local authority or private tenants whose income falls below the prescribed amounts as required by law. This usually consists of mandatory Rent Allowances and mandatory Rent Rebates, to HRA and non-HRA tenants.

Net Current Expenditure – see Current Expenditure

Reserves – These are sums set aside to finance future spending for purposes falling outside the definition of a provision. Reserves set aside for stated purposes are known as earmarked reserves. Non-ringfenced revenue reserves comprise of unallocated reserves and other earmarked reserves. Local authorities often earmark reserves to meet known financial commitments and to mitigate known risks. As reserves of this type cannot be used without putting wider service delivery at risk, most local authorities will have significantly lower usable revenue reserves than their non-ringfenced revenue reserves balance would imply. It is not possible to identify usable revenue reserves in the current release.

Retained income from the Rates Retention Scheme – Since 2017-18 some local authorities have been able to retain 100% of their business rates revenue as part of their Devolution deal. In 2017-18, the local share for London boroughs was also increased to 67% to reflect additional functions given to the GLA. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, some local authorities participated in pilots to retain an increased share of revenue for that year only. For 2018-19, this was 100% and in 2019-20, this was 75% retention. These business rates pilots have now ended.

Revenue Expenditure – Revenue expenditure involves accounting for other current expenditure in addition to service expenditure and non-current expenditure. Other current expenditure includes housing benefits paid to residents, any money passed down to parish councils through local precepts and any additional levies and adjustment charged during the year. It excludes expenditure financed by grants outside Aggregate External Finance. Revenue expenditure is financed by grants inside Aggregate External Finance, council tax and authorities’ reserves.

Revenue Support Grant – A general grant now distributed as part of Funding through the Settlement Grant.

Specific Grants inside AEF – These are revenue grants which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments, for which the local authority has sole responsibility for decisions on how the grant is allocated. The main purpose for the provision of these grants is to deliver core local authority services.

Specific Grants outside AEF – These are revenue grants, which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments. However, the local authority usually only acts as the ‘middle person’, as the grants are passed over to a third party who administers the service. The local authority does not normally have any control over the service for which the grant was intended for. This responsibility rests solely with the third party that receives the grant.