Whether this council's spending has been growing or shrinking over the past eight years, after stripping out inflation — its direction of travel, not its size. It matters because a council can look normal today while quietly growing much faster than its peers. Faster-than-peers growth in a service, like children's care, flags mounting pressure or slipping cost control; steady or falling real spending suggests discipline — or cuts.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runnymede | district | 18.26 | 1st highest of 161 |
| Surrey Heath | district | 13.08 | 2nd highest of 161 |
| South Derbyshire | district | 11.75 | 3rd highest of 161 |
| Colchester | district | 10.72 | 4th highest of 161 |
| Mid Suffolk | district | 9.4 | 5th highest of 161 |
| East Lindsey | district | 9.18 | 6th highest of 161 |
| Thanet | district | 8.94 | 7th highest of 161 |
| Dartford | district | 8.27 | 8th highest of 161 |
| Horsham | district | 7.89 | 9th highest of 161 |
| Westminster | london | 7.62 | 1st highest of 33 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nuneaton & Bedworth | district | -7.23 | 161st highest of 161 |
| Gloucester | district | -6.87 | 160th highest of 161 |
| Brentwood | district | -6.76 | 159th highest of 161 |
| Eastleigh | district | -4.97 | 158th highest of 161 |
| Rushmoor | district | -4.52 | 157th highest of 161 |
| Tandridge | district | -4.18 | 156th highest of 161 |
| Eastbourne | district | -3.96 | 155th highest of 161 |
| Folkestone & Hythe | district | -3.91 | 154th highest of 161 |
| Mansfield | district | -3.82 | 153rd highest of 161 |
| Erewash | district | -3.54 | 152nd highest of 161 |
| name | real-spend-trend |
|---|---|
| dataset | 01-revenue-outturn |
| kind | constructed |
| type | percentage |
| unit | % per year (real-terms CAGR) |
| grain | council-year |
| role | feature |
| source | Formula: CAGR of `RS_totsx_net_exp` (or any service line) from 2017-18 to 2024-25, GDP-deflated. Inputs: this dataset's CSV (8 years) + ONS GDP deflator (external) |
| period | FY 2017-18 to 2024-25, annual (year_ending 201803-202503) |
| missingness | "Rows with status other than "submitted" (i.e. "total" aggregates and "not submitted") must be filtered out; a non-submitted council-year is a genuine gap, not zero. 2024-25 covers 410/411 councils. Councils abolished/created in 2017-25 reorganisations appear only for the years they existed. Undefined for councils created or abolished by 2017-25 reorganisations, whose series do not span the window; the GDP deflator must be sourced externally." |
| score_note | Cost discipline over time is a genuine efficiency read that raw levels miss; reorganisations break some series. |
| calculated | ../calculated/real-spend-trend.csv |
| calculated_rows | 392 |
| calculated_periods | 2017-18 to 2024-25 (one CAGR per council, period stamped 2024-25) |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| peer_group | districts (n=161), unitaries (n=54), metropolitan boroughs (n=36), London boroughs (n=33), counties (n=21) — context variable, excluded from leaderboard scoring |
Real-terms compound annual growth of total (or service-line) spend over the eight-year series — cost discipline over time. Comparing service-line trends to peers spots outlier growth, e.g. children's social care. Reorganisations break series continuity, so match on ONS_code per year and exclude councils without a full series.