Council spending in England

England total service expenditure was £144,434 million in 2025-26. That is the published England line, not a sum of authority rows, and not a UK total.

England revenue outturn, £ million, 2025-26. Service expenditure and revenue expenditure are different lines and are not added.
Published lineFigure
Total service expenditure£144,434 million
Revenue expenditure£144,108 million

England only. Table 1a is £ million, cash, net of sales, fees and charges. Authority rows are £ thousand from the RS return. Do not add authority rows: a county and its districts are both in the file. Do not add the England total to UK TME. Region is taken from the ONS May 2025 ward lookup, by ONS code. It is not a column in the RS return. Rows are not added into a region.

England cash received in the year. Council tax and business rates are different lines and are not added to the outturn above, or to HMRC.
Published lineFigure
Council tax receipts£43,878 million
Non-domestic rates receipts£27,749 million

Cash received in the year, England, £ million, whether or not it relates to that year. 2025-26 is marked revised in the file. Council tax lines are not business-rate lines. Neither is HMRC cash, and neither is the NNDR3 yield table.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland council spending are not in these extracts. A blank there is not zero.

Related

Provenance

Source
Local authority revenue expenditure and financing, England
Dataset
England Table 1a service and revenue lines, and the England council tax and non-domestic rates receipts table
Published
17 September 2026
Coverage
England, 2025-26. Not the UK.
Last updated
24 September 2026 (2026-09-24T08:05:00Z)
Not combined with incompatible series
Not added to UK TME, TES, or HMRC cash. Authority rows are not added together.