Civometry

MHCLG · Latest published: … · Local authority

Outstanding borrowing by local authority

The gross borrowing each UK council owed at the end of the quarter, from MHCLG's local authorities borrowing and investments live table. The table publishes no total column, so the figure is Civometry's sum of the published component columns — loans short and longer term, bonds and stock issues.

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Source and method

Data
Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table (MHCLG) (MHCLG).
Denominator
None (gross borrowing per council). Percentiles rank the councils with a value for the newest quarter. Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table (MHCLG).
Coverage
MHCLG's live table covers every UK local government body. This layer shows the 361 councils; county councils in two-tier England, police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group borrow separately and have no page here.
Boundaries
ONS Open Geography Portal generalised boundaries, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Basemap
Ordnance Survey Maps API (Light), used under the OS Data Hub terms.
Stale areas
An area whose newest published value is for an earlier quarter than the newest any area carries is shown as no current data, with both periods named. Nothing is carried forward.
Method
Methodology

What this does not measure

Net indebtedness or financial health: borrowing is not offset against the authority's investments or the assets it bought, and much of it funds housing, regeneration and infrastructure with income attached. The UK figure covers every local government body — county councils, police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group — so the council rows shown here do not sum to it.

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.

Gross borrowing, not net of investments or assets. A high figure is not by itself a problem: much council borrowing funds housing, regeneration and infrastructure with income attached. Every quarter is restated at each MHCLG release.

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