{"schemaVersion":"1.0","id":"what-londons-councils-spend","dataset":"what-londons-councils-spend","title":"What London's councils spend","description":"Eight years of net current expenditure across the services London authorities provide.","methodology":"MHCLG Revenue Outturn time series, summed across all 33 London local authorities by compatible service heading. Values are nominal £ thousands and are not inflation-adjusted. Negative net expenditure is retained where published and inter-authority accounting means service lines should not be interpreted as household-level benefit.","category":"money","categoryLabel":"Money","cadence":"annual","placeholder":false,"landingPage":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend","markdown":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend/index.html.md","source":{"name":"MHCLG","url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-revenue-outturn-multi-year-data-set","licence":"Open Government Licence v3.0","licenceUrl":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"},"updatedAt":"2026-10-06T06:30:22.188Z","release":{"label":"Revenue and capital outturn 2025–26","publishedAt":null,"resourceUrl":"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ab26ffffe72ed1e2b02ee74/Revenue_Outturn_time_series_data_v4.csv","methodologyUrl":"https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-revenue-outturn-multi-year-data-set","sha256":"fc2178999efbcb133b48993beb706cee87d5cc0138f4eba58ccdcd6ece66ca00"},"observations":[{"series":"Adult social care","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[2362005,2463306,2558460,2704257,2742628,2991116,3380276,3722306,4081751],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Central services","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[472286,436177,482149,703870,828466,727524,728557,834522,612932],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Children's social care","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[1684759,1807371,1878843,1932258,1998469,2190592,2457428,2618174,2738925],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Culture","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[351672,337363,348822,399413,353554,398688,426113,433529,403429],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Education","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[6469853,6546042,6564526,6746502,6932611,7260380,7803761,8441756,9295348],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Environment and regulation","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[699082,706085,735869,824814,809356,856313,933097,997898,1044354],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Highways and transport","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[150832,134421,139570,269039,10540,-58162,-51177,-69797,-209272],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Housing","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[482777,574894,589081,701525,688700,722966,1007537,1303869,1457499],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Other services","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[5120,5457,-16272,168307,52550,65088,8729,34924,92277],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Planning and development","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[159569,144898,168218,224312,256356,231990,263188,239293,252980],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Public health","buckets":["2017–18","2018–19","2019–20","2020–21","2021–22","2022–23","2023–24","2024–25","2025–26"],"values":[670164,661372,639584,741440,774821,742695,754172,815313,860495],"unit":"£ thousand","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]}],"areaStatistics":null,"visualizations":[{"id":"trend","label":"Service trends","description":"Follow compatible service headings through the outturn time series.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend","renderer":"primary","default":true,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null},{"id":"services","label":"Service panels","description":"Give each service its own aligned trend panel.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend?view=services","renderer":"small-multiples","default":false,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null},{"id":"change","label":"Annual change","description":"Show year-to-year nominal changes by service.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend?view=change","renderer":"delta","default":false,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null},{"id":"shares","label":"Share over time","description":"Show how the service composition changes within each financial year.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend?view=shares","renderer":"share-trend","default":false,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null}],"availability":"observations","note":"The release is complete for the measures represented on the graph page."}