MHCLG · Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table, back years and lenders (MHCLG)
Outstanding council borrowing, 2010 to 2020
£126.9bn
Outstanding council borrowing, 2010 to 2020 was £126.9bn at 31 March 2020, up 10.3% (£11.9bn) from £115bn at 31 March 2019.
▲ 10.3% · +£11.9bn against 2019 Q1 (previous period)
- MHCLG snapshot
- 2020 Q1
- published 3 September 2026
- Outstanding borrowing
- row “United Kingdom”
- column “sum of all component columns, £ thousand”
- cell value 126858613
2020 Q1 is the highest figure in the published series: £126.9bn. Rule: highest of the 11 periods published here (2010 Q1 to 2020 Q1).
The series has risen for 10 consecutive quarters. Rule: 10 rises in a row from 2010 Q1 to 2020 Q1, with no move the other way.
The last three rises have each been larger than the one before. Rule: the three latest period-on-period rises grew in size each time (£7.9bn, £7.9bn, then £11.9bn).
2010 Q1 to 2020 Q1
The chart as a table
| Period | Outstanding council borrowing, 2010 to 2020 |
|---|---|
| 2010 Q1 | £70.1bn |
| 2011 Q1 | £73.8bn |
| 2012 Q1 | £85.6bn |
| 2013 Q1 | £87.9bn |
| 2014 Q1 | £89.1bn |
| 2015 Q1 | £91.9bn |
| 2016 Q1 | £94.4bn |
| 2017 Q1 | £99.2bn |
| 2018 Q1 | £107.1bn |
| 2019 Q1 | £115bn |
| 2020 Q1 | £126.9bn |
The chart as a table
| Period | Outstanding council borrowing, 2010 to 2020 |
|---|---|
| 2010 Q1 | £85.8bn |
| 2011 Q1 | £86.9bn |
| 2012 Q1 | £97.5bn |
| 2013 Q1 | £97.3bn |
| 2014 Q1 | £97.1bn |
| 2015 Q1 | £100.1bn |
| 2016 Q1 | £102.3bn |
| 2017 Q1 | £105.1bn |
| 2018 Q1 | £110.8bn |
| 2019 Q1 | £116.7bn |
| 2020 Q1 | £126.9bn |
What this measures
The gross borrowing a local authority owed at the end of each financial year from 2009-10 to 2019-20, summed from the component columns of the annual back-year sheets of the same MHCLG live table the quarterly series comes from, and stored as the calendar quarter containing that 31 March — so this series ends at 2020 Q1, exactly where the quarterly series begins.
What this doesn’t measure
Authorities abolished before 2020, which cannot be placed on current boundaries and are skipped; nor anything the quarterly total does not measure — borrowing is not netted against investments or assets.
Important caveat
Gross borrowing at the end of the quarter, summed by Civometry from the component columns of MHCLG's live table because the table publishes no total. It is not a measure of financial health: investments and the assets the borrowing bought are not netted off, and much council borrowing funds housing, regeneration or infrastructure with income attached, so a high figure is not by itself a problem nor a low one a virtue. In two-tier England the county council borrows separately from the districts, and police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group borrow separately again — those bodies are in the UK total but have no page here. Every quarter is restated at each release.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- MHCLG
- Publication
- Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table, back years and lenders (MHCLG)
- Release
- Q1 2026-27, published 3 September 2026
- Source file
- borrowing_q1_2026_27.ods
- File SHA-256
- b84c8a48a6c1221d3071d3fc813561b9fb7557282b1e0981154848dd2c06a963
- Retrieved
- 4 September 2026
- Sheet
- LA_Borrowing_19-20
- Table
- Outstanding borrowing
- Row
- United Kingdom
- Column
- sum of all component columns, £ thousand
- Cell value
- 126858613
- Geography
- United Kingdom
- Unit
- £ million
- API
- /api/metrics/council_borrowing_history · /series · /vintages
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
| Conservative 2017–2019 | £99.2bn2017 Q1 | £115bn2019 Q1 | ↑ 15.9% |
| Conservative 2015–2017 | £91.9bn2015 Q1 | £99.2bn2017 Q1 | ↑ 8.0% |
| Coalition 2010–2015 | £70.1bn2010 Q1 | £91.9bn2015 Q1 | ↑ 31.1% |
- Release
- Q1 2026-27 · publication page
- Last updated
- 3 September 2026
- Next release expected
- Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)