Council borrowing amounts to almost £100 billion, BBC investigation finds
UK councils owe a combined £97.8 billion to lenders, equivalent to £1,455 per resident, an investigation from the BBC has shown.
The analysis, which was published by the BBC's Shared Data Unit, was based on data from the live tables on local government finance.
The analysis partly looked at the amount of debt each council held relative to the council area's population.
It revealed that Woking Borough Council had the largest average debt per resident in the UK (nearly £19,000), followed by Spelthorne (£10,415), Warrington (£8,236) and Thurrock (£8,049).
Woking issued a section 114 notice in June 2023 in the face of almost £2 bn in debt and a £1.2m budget deficit.
According to the study, a total of 38 councils (10% of local authorities) held no borrowing as of September 2023.
The dataset covers the second financial quarter of 2023/24 (July to September 2023).
Councils argue that the financial issues they face are the result of "severe cost and demand" pressures.
Responding to the BBC's data, a spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA) said: "While councils have made investment decisions to help them replace funding shortfalls, the majority of council borrowing is focused on investing in projects that contribute to their local economies or help them provide core functions, such as housing and transport schemes.
"When making investments, councils are required to follow strict rules and assessments to ensure they invest wisely and manage the risk of their investments appropriately."
"The Government needs to come up with a long-term plan to sufficiently fund local services."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "Councils are ultimately responsible for their own finances, but we are very clear they should not put taxpayers' money at risk by taking on excessive debt.
"The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act provides new powers for central government to step in when councils take excessive risk with borrowing and investment. We have also established the Office for Local Government to further improve accountability across the sector, which will help detect emerging risks and support councils to continue delivering key public services."
Adam Carey
