A BBC Shared Data Unit analysis of data by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows UK councils owe a combined £97.8bn to lenders, equivalent to £1,455 per resident, as of September 2023.
Taking into account all types of local authorities, such as police and crime commissioners and combined authorities, the debt pile rose to £122bn.
High levels of local authority debt would see residents face an "extreme and long-lasting" impact on local services, the Public Accounts Committee warned.
But council leaders said years of government under-funding meant they had been forced to take out loans and invest in commercial properties just to keep services running.
A full briefing pack on the story can be found here.
This analysis provides further insight into the financial condition of councils after the investigation the BBC Shared Data Unit published in August 2023 revealing a £5bn black hole in town hall budgets (see the pack, dataset and repo).
- Shared spreadsheet: Council borrowing 2023 (also as a CSV file here)
- Council debt data by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Borrowing and investment live table, Q2 2023 to 2024
- ONS population figures: Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Dec 2022. This excludes Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland, both created in April 2023. Their population figures were obtained from their websites (Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland)
Bar chart: UK councils with the largest average debt per resident - Outstanding debt as of September 2023
- Jonathan Carr West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit
- Andy Carter, MP for South Warrington, who has criticised his council for acting "like a hedge fund"
- Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee
- A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
- A spokesperson for the District Councils’ Network
- A spokesperson for the Local Government Association
- Spokespeople for the local authorities of Woking, South Tyneside, East Lothian, Spelthorne, Warrington, Thurrock, Runnymede and Barking and Dagenham.
This investigation featured across BBC platforms on the 16th of January 2024 and was the most read in the BBC News website. Some BBC political reporters also covered the story for their local area, including Beds, Herts & Bucks and Birmingham & Black Country.
The research got special features in some BBC radio outlets, such as BBC Radio Kent and BBC Radio Sheffield, and BBC local TVs.
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association. The partnership generated over 70 stories, including:
- Aberdeen Live: Aberdeen City Council among UK top 10 for largest average debts per resident
- Kent Online: The Kent councils with the biggest debts and what the money has been spent on
- Hampshire Chronicle: Hampshire County Council £197m in debt according to new data
- The Cornish Times: Cornwall Council issue government funding plea as debt exceeds £700m
- The Hunts Post: Cambridgeshire: Councils have £1.33bn of debt in total
- News & Star - The Cumberland News: Cumberland council's debt adds up to £254million, figures reveal
- Western Telegraph: Pembrokeshire council's £192m debts, figures reaveal
- East Lothian Courier: East Lothian Council has debts of almost £450 million, study finds
- Southern Daily Echo: This is how much debt per resident each local council has
The story also featured in the Daily Express and both print and digital editions of The Times.
Six months later, during the 2024 general election, the reporting featured in the BBC England Data Unit story 'Cost of living: Your concerns, questions and stories'.
In August 2023, the BBC Shared Data Unit revealed that a black hole in local authority budgets continues to grow, prompting fears some will not be able to provide basic services (repo available here).
In July 2021, the BBC Shared Data Unit reported that UK councils faced a £3bn black hole in their budgets as they emerged from the coronavirus pandemic (repo available here).