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Council funding requirement and funding gap - technical document

Preliminary LGA analysis ahead of the 2020 Budget and Spending Review has identified that council services face a funding gap of £6.4 billion forming in the day-to-day council budgets in 2024/25 in comparison to 2019/20 budgets.


Technical Document: Assumptions and outline results of the 2025 funding gap analysis

Preliminary LGA analysis ahead of the 2020 Budget and Spending Review has identified that:

  • Council services face an additional funding requirement for their annual day-to-day spending of £13.2 billion by 2024/25, growing at a pace of over £2.6 billion each year on average.
  • When compared to the assumed changes to council funding levels, this leads to a funding gap of £6.4 billion forming in the day-to-day council budgets in 2024/25 in comparison to 2019/20 budgets.

The funding requirement for a given year is defined as the projected cost of funding day-to-day services in that year. This analysis focuses on the funding requirement arising from services funded via core spending power, retained business rates, the public health grant and NHS funding for adult social care.