Council Spending Trends: What the 2024-25 Data Reveals

Council Spending Trends: What the 2024-25 Data Reveals

Local authority spending patterns continue to evolve as councils navigate tight budgets and rising demand. Our analysis of published spending data across English councils reveals several notable trends for 2024-25.

Adult Social Care Dominates

Adult social care remains the single largest spending category for upper-tier councils, accounting for approximately 35-40% of total service expenditure in many authorities. Councils such as Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester have all seen year-on-year increases exceeding 5% in this area, driven by demographic pressures and workforce costs.

Highways Under Pressure

Highways and transport budgets tell a more complex story. While capital investment in road maintenance has increased following central government pothole funding, revenue spending on routine maintenance has been squeezed. Several metropolitan authorities report a real-terms decrease in day-to-day highways budgets compared to five years ago.

Children's Services Growing Fast

Children's services spending has risen sharply, with many councils reporting 8-12% annual increases. The combination of rising demand for social work, increasing costs of residential placements, and agency staffing pressures has made this the fastest-growing budget area for most councils.

Efficiency vs. Cuts

Councils are increasingly turning to shared services, digital transformation, and contract renegotiation to manage budgets. Our data shows that councils spending more on central administration per capita tend to deliver lower unit costs in frontline services, suggesting that investing in back-office efficiency can pay dividends.

What This Means

Understanding these trends is essential for suppliers bidding for council contracts, residents monitoring their local authority, and officers benchmarking their own performance. CouncilIQ provides real-time spending data to help all stakeholders make informed decisions.