Dataset 02 — Capital outturn + live tables on debt (MHCLG)

External debt, debt-servicing, capital expenditure/receipts (incl. asset-sale receipts) per English local authority.

Publisher

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Accredited official statistics.

Landing pages (all fetched during sourcing):

• Live tables on local government finance (borrowing & investment; capital payments & receipts): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-local-government-finance
• Capital expenditure and receipts final outturn time series: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-capital-expenditure-and-receipts-in-england-final-outturn-time-series
• 2024-25 final outturn release (England-aggregate tables only, context): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-capital-expenditure-and-receipts-in-england-2024-to-2025-final-outturn
• 2024-25 provisional outturn / 2025-26 forecast release (England-aggregate tables only, context): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-capital-expenditure-and-receipts-in-england-2024-to-2025-provisional-outturn-and-2025-to-2026-forecast

Files downloaded (in data/)

Verified: CSV has per-authority rows (LA_LGF_Code, ONS_Code, LA_Name, LA_Class) in wide format, one row per authority per year; both ODS live tables contain named individual councils (Birmingham, Westminster, Cornwall etc.).

Granularity, coverage, period

• Granularity: per local authority (all classes: unitary, county, district, London, met districts, plus GLA/other bodies).
• Coverage: England for the capital outturn time series and CPR4 live table; UK for the borrowing & investment live table.
• Period: CSV time series 2018-19 to 2024-25 (final outturn); borrowing live table quarterly stock of borrowing/investments to end-March 2026; CPR4 live table 2025-26 in-year.

Refresh cadence

• Final outturn: annual (2024-25 final published 6 Nov 2025; time-series CSV refreshed 25 Mar 2026). Next (2025-26 final) expected autumn 2026.
• Provisional outturn + forecast: annual, June.
• Borrowing & investment and CPR live tables: quarterly (roughly Aug/Nov/Feb/May); superseded quarters are replaced in-place on the live-tables page.

Re-download

curl -L -o data/Capital_time_series_data_wide_24_03_26.csv \
  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c2a55b13f1436476e4436c/Capital_time_series_data_wide_24_03_26.csv
curl -L -o data/Metadata_COR_time_series.ods \
  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/695e72a78ab0677c14afdfda/Metadata_COR_time_series.ods
curl -L -o data/Borrowing_and_investment_live_table_Q4_2025_to_2026.ods \
  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a33b12200ff27f06e3ef9e7/Borrowing_and_investment_live_table_Q4_2025_to_2026.ods
curl -L -o data/Capital_payments_and_receipts_Q4_2025_to_2026_England.ods \
  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a33b1406422bec01b117747/Capital_payments_and_receipts_Q4_2025_to_2026_England.ods

Note: asset URLs change each edition; get current links from the two landing pages above.

Licence

Open Government Licence v3.0 (stated on all four gov.uk release pages fetched).

Caveats

• The annual outturn release pages (TAB1–TAB9) are England aggregates only; per-authority data lives in the time-series CSV and the live tables. MHCLG contact for authority-level queries: CapitalData@communities.gov.uk.
• 2024-25 provisional outturn was based on 404 of 409 authorities' CPR4 returns; final outturn revises these. Provisional and final figures for the same year differ.
• Live tables are overwritten each quarter — prior-quarter files disappear from the page (older editions only via National Archives web archive).
• Local government reorganisations (e.g. new unitaries) create discontinuities in the time series; the borrowing live table includes non-council bodies (e.g. GLA functional bodies) — filter by LA class.
• Column names in the CSV are coded (e.g. EandR1_eduerlprm_explndbld); decode via Metadata_COR_time_series.ods.