Accredited official statistics

Local authority revenue expenditure and financing: 2025-26 budget, England

Published 19 June 2025

Applies to England

1. In this release:

Total Service Expenditure

• Local authority net current expenditure on services is budgeted to be £138.7 billion in 2025-26. This is £8.2 billion (6.3%) higher in real terms than was budgeted for 2024-25.

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

• Education services net expenditure is budgeted to total £45.8 billion in 2025-26, £3.0 billion (+7.1%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2024-25. This was largely due to a real terms increase of £2.1 billion (+34.5%) in Early Years expenditure.

• Adult Social Care net expenditure (excluding funding via NHS) is budgeted to be £26.7 billion, £1.6 billion (+6.2%) higher in real terms than the amount budgeted for 2024-25.

• Children’s Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to be £15.5 billion in 2025-26, £1.0 billion (+7.1%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2024-25.

• Housing Services net expenditure is budgeted to be £3.2 billion for 2025-26, an increase in real terms of £589 million (+22.6%). This was driven by a real terms increase of £541 million (+36.7%) in homelessness.

Revenue Expenditure

• The broader measure of local authority Revenue Expenditure is budgeted to be £141.6 billion in 2025-26. This is £7.4 billion (+5.5%) higher in real terms than budgeted for 2024-25.

Release date: 19 June 2025
Date of next release: June 2026
Responsible Statistician: Tom Crowther
Contact: lgf1.revenue@communities.gov.uk
Media enquiries: NewsDesk@communities.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 2025-26. This release includes detail on how much authorities are budgeting to spend across the services they provide, and the sources of income to finance this expenditure.

Revenue Account returns and response rate

The information is compiled from Revenue Account (RA) budget returns submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) by local authorities in England. This information is then validated by MHCLG and any apparent inconsistencies and outliers are sent back to authorities for review and explanation.

This publication is based on returns from 404 out of 412 (98%) local authorities in England. Eight authorities have not submitted data: Chesterfield, Cumberland, Greenwich, Richmond upon Thames, Redbridge, Slough, Thurrock, Wandsworth.

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 2025-26.

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 +3.8% during 2024-25 and +2.65% in 2025-26. We continue to average the figures for 2020-21 and 2021-22 (both to +2.35%) 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.

Please tell us how you use the data

We are keen to know how these and related data (e.g. also Revenue Outturn and Quarterly Revenue Update) are used. Please feel free to send us a brief description at lgf1.revenue@communities.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.

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 2025-26 prices), as are the following figures:

Budgeted Total Service Expenditure has increased by 6.3% to £138.7 billion in 2025-26 compared with 2024-25. Within this, the following are the most notable changes in budgeted service expenditure (in real terms):

• Budgeted net current expenditure on education services for 2025-26 was £45.8 billion. This was £3.0 billion (7.1%) higher than the budget for 2024-25. This was largely due to a real terms increase of £2.1 billion (+34.5%) on budgeted Early Years expenditure following further changes to the Early Years entitlements and funding.

• Adult Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to be £26.7 billion, £1.6 billion (+6.2%) higher in real terms than 2024-25. Within this, learning disability support for adults has increased by £401.8 million.

• Children’s Social Care net expenditure is budgeted to increase in real terms by £1.0 billion (+7.1%) from 2024-25 to £15.5 billion in 2025-26. This increase was predominantly the result of real terms increase of £732 million (+9.5%) on children looked after.

• Highways and transport services are budgeted to total £6.0 billion, £697 million (+13.1%) higher in real terms than was budgeted for in 2024-25. Within this, there was an increase of £616 million (+32.4%) in the expenditure budgeted for support to operators which is largely driven by the Greater London Authority, who budgeted £1.6 billion to support to operators, an increase of £487.8 million, (+43.9%) compared to last year.

• Housing services net expenditure is budgeted to total £3.2 billion, £589 million (+22.6%) higher in real terms than was budgeted for in 2024-25. This was because of an increase of £541 million (+36.7%) in the expenditure budgeted for homelessness services. N.B This excludes costs of temporary accommodation that are reclaimed from central government.

Table 1a: General Fund Revenue Account: Outturn 2021-22 to 2023-24 and budget 2024-25 to 2025-26 (real terms) [note 1]

£ million – adjusted for inflation and are shown in 2025-26 prices.

Service Category	2021-22 (outturn)	2022-23 (R) (outturn)	2023-24 (outturn)	2024-25 (Budget)	2025-26 (Budget)
Education [note 2]	42,071	41,895	42,459	42,761	45,779
Highways and transport	6,436	5,380	5,245	5,296	5,993
Highways and transport services (excl GLA)	3,614	3,515	3,579	3,829	3,968
Highways and transport services (GLA only)	2,822	1,865	1,666	1,467	2,025
Children’s Social Care	13,609	14,477	15,548	14,516	15,549
Adult Social Care [note 3]	22,907	23,153	25,036	25,143	26,701
Public Health	5,112	4,323	4,155	4,059	4,186
Housing (excluding Housing Revenue Account)	2,633	2,575	2,984	2,601	3,190
of which:
Homelessness	1,304	1,409	1,819	1,474	2,014
Cultural, environmental and planning	12,079	12,034	11,997	11,605	11,884
Police	16,432	16,490	16,848	16,998	17,676
Fire & rescue	2,738	2,733	2,784	2,927	3,022
Central services	4,960	4,770	4,548	3,430	3,543
Other Services	297	226	247	1,096	1,145
Total Service Expenditure	129,272	128,056	131,850	130,432	138,668

Notes:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. These figures exclude transfers from the NHS (including Better Care Fund).

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, accounting for 19% and 11% respectively across all authorities.

Chart A: Proportion of budgeted service expenditure by service, England, 2025-26

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

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 £141.6 billion in 2025-26, 5.5% higher in real terms than the 2024-25 budget.

Table 2a: Estimated net current expenditure by service, England, 2024-25 and 2025-26, (real terms) [note1]

£ million – adjusted for inflation and shown in 2025-26 prices.

Service Category	Net Current Expenditure [Note 5] 2024-25	Net Current Expenditure [Note 5] 2025-26	Real terms change £ m	Real terms change %
Education services	42,761	45,779	3,017	7.1
Highways and transport services	5,296	5,993	696	13.1
Highways and transport services (excl. GLA)	3,829	3,968	139	3.6
Highways and transport services (GLA only)	1,467	2,025	558	38.0
Children’s Social Care services	14,516	15,549	1,033	7.1
Adult Social Care services	25,143	26,701	1,559	6.2
Public Health services	4,059	4,186	127	3.1
Housing services (excluding Housing Revenue Account)	2,601	3,190	589	22.6
of which:
Homelessness	1,474	2,014	541	36.7
Cultural, environmental and planning services	11,605	11,884	279	2.4
of which:
Cultural services	2,618	2,653	35	1.3
Environmental services	6,945	7,161	216	3.1
Planning and development services	2,042	2,070	28	1.4
Police services	16,998	17,676	679	4.0
Fire and rescue services	2,927	3,022	96	3.3
Central services	3,430	3,543	112	3.3
Other Services	1,096	1,145	49	4.5
Total Service Expenditure	130,432	138,668	8,236	6.3
Precepts, levies, trading accounts and adjustments
Housing Benefits [note 2]	13,824	12,584	-1,239	-9.0
Parish Precepts	793	852	59	7.5
Levies [note 3]	15	11	-4	-27.7
Trading Account Adjustments and Other Adjustments [note 4]	-259	-252	7	-2.7
Non Current Expenditure and External Receipts	-10,556	-15,344	-4,788	45.4
of which:
Capital expenditure charged to Revenue Account (CERA)	2,078	1,505	-573	-27.6
Housing Benefits Subsidies	-10,743	-9,821	923	-8.6
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)	-159	-152	7	-4.3
Netting off expenditure capitalised by a direction under Section 16(2)b	-468	-979	-511	109.1
Appropriations to(+)/from(-) dedicated schools grant adjustment account	-480	-827	-347	72.3
Capital financing and debt servicing [note 5]	6,648	6,928	280	4.2
Revenue Expenditure	134,248	141,640	7,392	5.5

Notes:

1. 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.
2. Includes all Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Housing Benefits.
3. Includes ‘Integrated Transport Authority levy’, ‘Waste Disposal Authority levy’, ‘London Pensions Fund Authority levy’ and ‘Other levies’.
4. 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’.
5. Includes provision for repayment of principal, leasing payments, external interest payments and HRA item 8 interest payments and receipts.

4. Revenue Expenditure Financing

This section outlines the different funding streams that finance local authorities’ expenditure and how these are forecast to differ for 2025-26 from what was budgeted for 2024-25.

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.

For the financial year 2025-26 the government agreed to provide 29 councils with support to manage financial pressures via the Exceptional Financial Support process to the amount of £1.33 billion. Some authorities have not budgeted to use this support within the revenue account; others may have only budgeted for partial use. This is accounted for in the reported Total Revenue Expenditure in Table 2.

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 several government departments.

Central government grants are expected to account for 53.1% of Revenue Expenditure (or 53.7% excluding appropriations from reserves), while council tax accounted for 31.1%, and the majority of the remainder to be financed through locally retained business rates.

Central government grants are expected to total £75.2 billion in 2025-26. This is £6.3 billion (+9.1%) higher in real terms than was reported in 2024-25 budget data. The largest components within this change were:

i) Dedicated Schools Grant: £2.0 billion (+6.0%) higher in real terms than in 2024-25. Much of this increase relates to the increase in Early Years entitlement and funding.

ii) Social Care Support Grant £775 million (+15%) higher in real terms compared to 2024-25.

iii) The new Neighbourhood Policing Grant (£589 million) and the Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant (£476 million)

Several grants were discontinued or consolidated into other grants in the financial year 2025-26, amongst them: Rural Service Delivery Grant, Adult Social Care Discharge Fund, Funding Guarantee, Services Grant.

Additionally, several new grants were added, including Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant (£141 million), Recovery Grant (£187 million), Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant (£257 million), Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant (£476 million), Funding Floor (£212 million), Police National Insurance Contribution (£123 million), Neighbourhood Policing Grant (£589 million).

Table 3a: Budgeted revenue expenditure and financing, England, 2024-25 to 2025-26 (real terms)

£ million – adjusted for inflation and are shown in 2025-26 prices.

Service Category	Net Current Expenditure 2024-25	Net Current Expenditure 2025-26	Change £m	Change %
Revenue expenditure [note 1]	134,248	141,640	7,392	5.5
Financed by:
Total Government Grants [note 2]	68,854	75,154	6,299	9.1
of which:
Specific grants inside AEF	57,027	63,188	6,161	10.8
including:
Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)	33,782	35,813	2,031	6.0
Pupil Premium Grant	1,158	1,108	-50	-4.3
Universal Infants Free School Meals	268	247	-21	-7.8
Public Health Grant	3,471	3,593	123	3.5
Social Care Grant	5,150	5,925	775	15.0
Local Authority Better Care Fund Grant [note 3]	2,593	2,471	-121	-4.7
Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund	1,062	1,043	-19	-1.8
Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant	-	476	-	-
Homelessness Prevention grant	353	617	264	74.7
The Private Finance Initiative (PFI)	1,160	1,096	-64	-5.5
Officer Maintenance Grant	-	351	-	-
Neighborhood Policing Grant	-	589	-	-
Other grants inside AEF	7,556	11,359	3,803	50.3
Revenue Support Grant	2,179	2,308	129	5.9
Police grant	9,652	9,658	6	0.1
Council tax requirement [note 4]	42,324	44,114	1,790	4.2
Retained income from Business Rate Retention Scheme	20,818	20,803	-15	-0.1
Appropriations to (-) / from (+) revenue reserves	1,615	1,432	-183	-11.3
Other items [note 5]	596	219	-378	-63.3

Notes:

1. The financing elements do not sum exactly to the Revenue expenditure total (a difference of £81 million, 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. 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 a balancing item of £141.7 million in 2024-25 and £81million in 2025-26 arising from the separate grossing of the figures of the components in the financing section.
5. Figures for the Local Authority Better Care Fund Grant up to and including 2024-25 sum both the Improved Better Care Fund and the Adult Social Care Discharge Fund, which were consolidated into a single funding stream from 2025-26.

Table 4a: Financing of revenue expenditure, England, outturn 2021-22 to 2023-24 and budget 2024-25 to 2025-26 (real terms)

£ million – adjusted for inflation and shown in 2025-26 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(+) / to (-) reserves excluding COVID BR relief grant [note 4],[note 5]	Other items [note 7]
2021-22
(Outturn)	134,176	79,228	55.7	21,330	41,582	62,912	44.3	-3,736	-1,115
2022-23
(Outturn)	132,264	70,594	54.2	18,581	40,962	59,543	45.8	1,985	1
2023-24
(Outturn)	133,746	70,452	53.5	20,014	41,253	61,267	46.5	1,111	718
2024-25
(Budget)	134,248	68,854	52.2	20,818	42,324	63,142	47.8	1,615	596
2025-26
(Budget)	141,640	75,154	53.7	20,803	44,114	64,917	46.3	1,432	219

Notes:

1. The financing elements do not sum exactly to the Revenue expenditure total (a difference of £40 million for 2024-25 (0.1% of revenue expenditure) and £81 million in 2025-26 (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).
7. Other items include any income from inter-authority transfers and net collection fund surpluses (+) / deficits (-) from the previous year.

5. Accompanying tables

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

Rounding

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

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 2025-26 for all local authorities are available to download alongside this release. Please note that eight local authorities across three classes of authority did not submit data in time for this publication, 8 weeks after the deadline.

These tables present all revenue information, by local authority, in a similar format as returned to MHCLG. 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 MHCLG is available via the Department’s website: Statistics at MHCLG

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: 2025 to 2026 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.