This shows what slice of the council's day-to-day budget goes on its debts each year — repayments plus interest — rather than on services like social care or bin collections. It matters because every pound spent servicing debt is a pound not spent on residents. A high share means debt costs are eating into services and the council has little room if things go wrong; a low share means debt is a minor burden.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brentwood | district | 9.03 | 1st worst of 163 |
| Woking | district | 4.17 | 2nd worst of 163 |
| Runnymede | district | 2.14 | 3rd worst of 163 |
| North East Derbyshire | district | 1.8 | 4th worst of 163 |
| Mole Valley | district | 1.61 | 5th worst of 163 |
| St Albans | district | 1.58 | 6th worst of 163 |
| Eastleigh | district | 1.38 | 7th worst of 163 |
| Basildon | district | 1.15 | 8th worst of 163 |
| Epping Forest | district | 1.12 | 9th worst of 163 |
| Spelthorne | district | 1.09 | 10th worst of 163 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erewash | district | -0 | 1st best of 163 |
| South Oxfordshire | district | 0 | 5th best of 163 |
| Malvern Hills | district | 0 | 5th best of 163 |
| Bromsgrove | district | 0 | 5th best of 163 |
| Vale of White Horse | district | 0 | 5th best of 163 |
| Forest of Dean | district | 0 | 6th best of 163 |
| Tonbridge & Malling | district | 0 | 7th best of 163 |
| Cotswold | district | 0 | 8th best of 163 |
| Maldon | district | 0 | 9th best of 163 |
| North Hertfordshire | district | 0 | 10th best of 163 |
| name | debt_servicing_share |
|---|---|
| dataset | 02-capital-outturn-debt |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | ratio |
| grain | council-year |
| role | feature |
| source | debt_repayment_total / core_spend — (PRU1_prurpy_amt + RS_intextpay_net_exp) (this dataset) divided by RS_totsx_net_exp from 01-revenue-outturn; join on ONS_code/year |
| period | 2018-19 to 2024-25 |
| missingness | unknown |
| calculated | ../calculated/debt-servicing-share.csv |
| calculated_rows | 2972 |
| calculated_periods | 2018-19 to 2024-25 |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| score_note | Best-in-set: pounds diverted from services to debt, per pound of service spend. |
| peer_group | districts (n=204), unitaries (n=65), metropolitan boroughs (n=36), London boroughs (n=33), counties (n=27) — scored within each class against its median/IQR |
The share of each pound of core service spend consumed by repaying capital debt — money not reaching services. It is the most direct efficiency-relevant expression of debt cost: two councils with equal service budgets but different servicing shares deliver different amounts of actual service. Use non-HRA columns so landlord debt does not inflate the numerator.
Independent web validation contradicted this variable for Woking 2024-25: computed 0.287, but published sources (Commissioners' reports, council budget papers) put minimum debt servicing at ~£170m (≈£97m MRP + ~£70m interest) against a ~£19-23m net budget — roughly 9x, not 0.29. Cause: the outturn return records what the council actually charged to revenue — Woking historically under-provided MRP and nets commercial income against interest costs — so for commercial-debt councils this variable reflects accounting practice, not true debt burden. Treat extreme-debt councils' values as a floor, and prefer debt-to-core-spend (CFR-based, which validation supported) for distress signalling.
Birmingham validation pinned the mechanism precisely: our numerator (PRU1 revenue MRP, £139.4m) matches the computed 4.8%, but full debt servicing adds external interest payments (£129.8m in the RS return's "Interest: external payments" line) for a true ~11.4%. The variable as computed is an MRP share, not a debt-servicing share. Fix queued: recompute numerator as MRP + RS external interest.