# What councils choose

> Budgets, outturn, reserves and council tax show different moments in local public finance.

- Category: Money and business
- Canonical: [https://londongraph.com/story/what-councils-choose](https://londongraph.com/story/what-councils-choose)
- Machine-readable record: [https://londongraph.com/data/story/what-councils-choose](https://londongraph.com/data/story/what-councils-choose)
- Latest contributing release: 2026-08-02T23:02:02.832Z

A budget is an intention, outturn is a later accounting record, reserves are a stock and council tax is one funding stream. This story keeps the accounting categories separate while showing the choices boroughs publish.

## Evidence

### Service spending

Published local-authority service expenditure across comparable categories.

- Current computed headline: 2024–25 — 8,448,879 £ thousand (2024–25)
- 2023–24: 7,813,761 £ thousand
- Release: Revenue and capital outturn 2024–25
- Dataset: `what-londons-councils-spend`
- Explore: [what-londons-councils-spend](https://londongraph.com/g/what-londons-councils-spend)

### Budget and outturn

Planned expenditure compared with the later recorded outturn.

- Current computed headline: Outturn — 561,812 £ thousand (Westminster)
- Budget: 477,645 £ thousand
- Release: Revenue and capital outturn 2024–25
- Dataset: `budget-versus-outturn`
- Explore: [budget-versus-outturn](https://londongraph.com/g/budget-versus-outturn)

### Reserves and borrowing

Published reserve and borrowing measures kept as separate stocks.

- Current computed headline: Gross borrowing — 572,688 £ thousand (Westminster)
- Revenue reserves: 353,963 £ thousand
- Release: Revenue and capital outturn 2024–25
- Dataset: `council-reserves-and-borrowing`
- Explore: [council-reserves-and-borrowing](https://londongraph.com/g/council-reserves-and-borrowing)

### Council-tax allocation

Service shares in the published council-tax presentation.

- Current computed headline: Education — 8,027,372 £ thousand budgeted service spending (Education)
- Adult social care: 3,469,009 £ thousand budgeted service spending
- Release: Revenue and capital outturn 2024–25
- Dataset: `where-council-tax-goes`
- Explore: [where-council-tax-goes](https://londongraph.com/g/where-council-tax-goes)

## Interpretation

Accounting structures, service responsibilities and financing arrangements differ between authorities and years. Large totals do not by themselves indicate service quality.

Every numerical claim is computed from the current versioned datasets at render time. Missing data is reported as missing rather than replaced.

## Sources

- [Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-revenue-outturn-multi-year-data-set)
- [Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-capital-expenditure-and-receipts-in-england-final-outturn-time-series)
- [Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2024-to-2025-budget-individual-local-authority-data)