This compares the council's spending on building and buying long-term things with the money it spends running day-to-day services. It matters because it shows how big the council's investment plans are relative to its normal size. A high number means the council is building or buying a lot compared with its everyday budget — ambitious, but often funded by borrowing; a low number means investment is modest.
| name | capex_to_core_spend |
|---|---|
| dataset | 02-capital-outturn-debt |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | ratio |
| grain | council-year |
| role | feature |
| source | capex_total / core_spend — EandR1_alltot_expgrandtot (this dataset) divided by RS_netcurrtot_net_exp from 01-revenue-outturn/data/Revenue_Outturn_time_series_data_v3.2.csv; join on ONS_code/year |
| period | 2018-19 to 2024-25 |
| missingness | unknown |
| score_note | Size-normalized but a context measure — big programmes are not per se inefficient. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
The scale of the capital programme relative to the council's operating size (core net current service spend). It contextualizes debt and financing ratios: a big programme can justify rising debt if matched by grants and receipts. Core spend substitutes for population as the normalizer, and reorganisations break year-on-year comparability.