WIREDGOV

National Statistics/Official Statistics Publications for Scotland.

Net revenue expenditure (revenue expenditure to be financed from General Revenue Funding, local taxation and balances) on services was £10.5 billion in 2013-14 (up 1.9 per cent on 2012-13). The highest spending service is education which had net expenditure of £4.6 billion (44 per cent of net expenditure). Social Work is the next largest service with net expenditure of £3.0 billion (29 per cent of net expenditure).

Scotland’s Chief Statistician yesterday released National Statistics on Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics 2013-14 and Official Statistics on Council Tax Reduction: Caseload and Expenditure, Scotland, October 2014 - December 2014.

Net revenue income was £11.64 billion in 2013-14. The main source of net revenue income is General Revenue Funding, providing around 62 per cent of, with Non-Domestic Rates providing around 21 per cent and council tax providing the remaining 17 per cent.

In 2013-14, council tax bills were issued to around 2.4 million dwellings in Scotland. The amounts collected in 2013-14 raised a total of almost £2 billion across all local authorities in Scotland.

Non-domestic rates income collected increased slightly from £2.347 billion in 2012-13 to £2.367 billion in 2013-14. This is due to the net effect of several factors including an inflationary increase in the poundage rate, the impact of revaluation appeals, and other changes to the tax base (for example due to new or demolished properties). As at 1st April 2014, the tax base was comprised of 221,292 non-domestic properties on the Valuation Roll, with a total rateable value of £6.681 billion.

Total capital expenditure was £2.46 billion in 2013-14 (£0.62 billion in the housing revenue account and £1.84 billion in the General Fund), compared to £2.55 billion in 2012-13 – a fall of £0.09 billion. The majority of capital expenditure went on new construction, conversions and enhancements to existing buildings, this category accounted for around 80 per cent of expenditure.

General fund capital expenditure in 2013-14 was £1.84 billion. The services with the highest capital expenditure were education with £0.524 billion (28 per cent) and roads and transport which had expenditure of £0.459 billion (25 per cent).

Local Government Pension Funds income in 2013-14 was £3.22 billion. Local Government Pension Funds expenditure in 2013-14 was £1.13 billion. Pension fund expenditure on benefits (including increases under the Pensions (Increase) Acts) has increased from £1.03 billion in 2012-13 to £1.07 billion in 2013-14. Net Investment and Other Income is the most variable component of the total Pension Funds Income and fell from £3.04 billion in 2012-13 to £2.06 billion in 2013-14.

The finalised total value of Council Tax Reduction awarded in 2013-14 was £360 million. This is more than the £351 million provided by UK Government and Scottish Government, but less than the £368 million which includes £17 million that local authorities agreed to absorb. There were 527,460 Council Tax Reduction recipients in December 2014 and total weekly expenditure was £6.7 million. Caseload has decreased gradually by 4.5 per cent (24,900) between the beginning of Scotland’s CTR scheme in April 2013, and December 2014.