After health, funding for Scottish councils is the second largest item in the Scottish Government’s Budget. In the original 2022–23 budget as passed by the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government allocated £10.6 billion to councils as part of the main local government portfolio, with further funding from other portfolios increasing the amount initially provided in the annual local government finance settlement for resource (i.e. non-capital) spending to £12.0 billion.
This funding supports a range of service areas including schools, early-years education and childcare, adults’ and children’s social care, environmental and regulatory services, local transport, leisure and cultural services, planning and local economic development, and housing advice and regulation. Additional funding is raised by councils themselves through council tax and sales, fees and charges, and via contributions from public sector bodies such as the National Health Service (NHS).
The 2010s saw cuts to councils’ funding and spending, but more recently funding has been increasing again. This chapter of the report therefore first looks at how Scottish councils’ spending on local services changed during the 2010s, splitting spending into spending on schools and spending on other services to allow for easier comparisons of trends in England (although differences in data and responsibilities mean these comparisons are somewhat rougher for the ‘other services’ category). It then looks forward to 2023–24 and 2024–25, looking at the outlook for overall council funding including for schools, and how this compares with England.
