Scots local government services spending hits £15bn

Scottish local government financial statistics for 2016-17 show that gross revenue expenditure on services was £15.590 billion and income was £5.578 billion, resulting in a net cost of services of £10.012 billion, the Scottish government said.

£4.830 billion of the net costs of services was on education and £3.136 billion was on social work.

These two services accounted for around three-quarters of the net cost of services.

Expenditure on the repayment of debt and the financing of capital investment was £1.686 billion, which results in a funding requirement of £11.699 billion.

For general fund revenue expenditure and funding, 2016-17 gross expenditure on revenue services was £14.913 billion and income was £4.401 billion, a net cost of services of £10.511 billion.

“Further costs for the repayment of debt and the financing of capital expenditure amounted to £1.207 billion,” said the Scottish government.

“This left a funding requirement of £11.718 billion.

“This funding requirement is met from grant from the Scottish Government, Non Domestic Rate income, Council Tax and Reserves.

“Total Funding in 2016-17 was £11.708 billion.

“This is made up of Scottish Government General Revenue Grant with £6.839 billion (58%), Non Domestic Rates with £2.769 billion (24%), Council tax with £2.091 billion (18%), and other funding of £0.009 billion (rounds to 0%).

“This left a deficit of £9.914 million to be funded from reserves.

“The value of General Fund reserves at 1 April 2016 was £1.495 billion.

“After taking into account the deficit for the year plus a transfer from other reserves of £5.315 million the value of General Fund reserves at 31 March 2017 was £1.490 billion, a decrease of £4.599 million.”