This shows what share of the council's borrowing comes from the government's own lending body, as opposed to banks and other lenders. It matters because government loans are the standard, safest source for councils; heavy use of other lenders can signal chasing cheaper or riskier deals. A high number means the council borrows almost entirely from the government — plain vanilla; a low number means it relies more on banks and markets, which is worth a closer look.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Riding of Yorkshire | unitary | 1 | 1st highest of 63 |
| South Staffordshire | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| Leicester | unitary | 1 | 1st highest of 63 |
| Harborough | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| Hinckley & Bosworth | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| Melton | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| Boston | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| South Holland | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| South Kesteven | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| North Norfolk | district | 1 | 1st highest of 135 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth | london | 0 | 30th highest of 30 |
| Chelmsford | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Basingstoke & Deane | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Reigate & Banstead | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Hyndburn | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Broxbourne | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | district | 0 | 130th highest of 135 |
| Maidstone | district | 0.06 | 129th highest of 135 |
| Preston | district | 0.15 | 128th highest of 135 |
| Lancashire | county | 0.17 | 21st highest of 21 |
| name | pwlb_dependence |
|---|---|
| dataset | 02-capital-outturn-debt |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | ratio |
| grain | council-quarter |
| role | feature |
| source | pwlb_loans_longterm / Σ borrowing_components_q — 'Loans Longer-term - PWLB' divided by the sum of all lender-category columns on sheet LA_Borrowing_25-26_Q4 of Borrowing_and_investment_live_table_Q4_2025_to_2026.ods |
| period | 2025-26 Q4 (quarterly live table) |
| missingness | unknown |
| score_note | Distinct liquidity-stress angle; quarterly-only and needs manual denominator. |
| calculated | ../calculated/pwlb-dependence.csv |
| calculated_rows | 10231 |
| calculated_periods | 2009-10 to 2025-26-Q4 (annual to 2019-20, quarterly from 2020-21-Q1) |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| peer_group | districts (n=177), unitaries (n=65), metropolitan boroughs (n=37), London boroughs (n=31), counties (n=27) — context variable, excluded from leaderboard scoring |
Concentration of the council's debt in the Public Works Loan Board versus market and inter-authority lenders. Low PWLB dependence with high short-term inter-LA reliance signals liquidity stress — a council rolling over cheap short loans it cannot term out. The denominator must be summed manually (no total column exists on the sheet), and the table is UK-wide — filter to England.