About this data

Source: MHCLG, Local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2026 to 2027 budget

• Budgets for April 2026 to March 2027, set by local authorities in spring 2026. All of England's local authorities are included: councils, the Greater London Authority, police and crime commissioners, fire and rescue authorities, combined authorities, national park and waste authorities. MHCLG estimates the figures of the few authorities that didn't send their budgets in time.
• Figures are net service expenditure on day-to-day (revenue) spending: what authorities spend on services after income from sales, fees and charges, and grants paid directly for particular services outside the main funding system, are taken off. Capital spending, housing benefit payments and council housing (the Housing Revenue Account) are not included. Spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is also excluded.
• Education spending falls as schools become academies, which are funded directly by central government, not through councils. So differences between areas, and changes over time, partly reflect how many schools are academies.
• Police spending here is the police forces' spending that goes through local police and crime commissioners; most of it is funded by central government grant.

This chart appears in Public spending.