Outstanding borrowing by local authority

Highest areas

Lowest areas

Ranked by outstanding borrowing, £ million, highest first; ties in alphabetical order. Areas without a value are not ranked.

What this map shows

361 of 361 local authority areas have a current value for outstanding borrowing (outstanding borrowing, £ million), Latest published: 2026 Q2. Classes are quantiles of the areas with data, computed on the server, so the same link always gives the same legend.

The sum of the published borrowing component columns for the body, gross of investments.

Take the data

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Embed (static map with title, period, official source and a link back):

<iframe src="https://civometry.com/embed/maps/council-borrowing/all/latest?level=lad&measure=count" width="720" height="700" style="border:0;max-width:100%" title="Outstanding borrowing, outstanding borrowing, £ million, by local authority: Latest published: 2026 Q2 | Civometry" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Source and method

Data

Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table (MHCLG) (MHCLG).

Denominator

None (gross borrowing per council). Percentiles rank the councils with a value for the newest quarter. Local authorities borrowing and investments: UK live table (MHCLG).

Coverage

MHCLG's live table covers every UK local government body. This layer shows the 361 councils; county councils in two-tier England, police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group borrow separately and have no page here.

Boundaries

ONS Open Geography Portal generalised boundaries, Open Government Licence v3.0 (2025-05 BGC v2 LAD_MAY_2025_UK_BGC_V2).

Basemap

Ordnance Survey Maps API (Light), used under the OS Data Hub terms.

Formula

the published component columns for the body, £ thousand, summed and divided by 1,000

Stale areas

An area whose newest published value is for an earlier quarter than the newest any area carries is shown as no current data, with both periods named. Nothing is carried forward.

Method

Methodology

What this does not measure

Net indebtedness or financial health: borrowing is not offset against the authority's investments or the assets it bought, and much of it funds housing, regeneration and infrastructure with income attached. The UK figure covers every local government body — county councils, police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group — so the council rows shown here do not sum to it.

Gross borrowing at the end of the quarter, summed by Civometry from the component columns of MHCLG's live table because the table publishes no total. It is not a measure of financial health: investments and the assets the borrowing bought are not netted off, and much council borrowing funds housing, regeneration or infrastructure with income attached, so a high figure is not by itself a problem nor a low one a virtue. In two-tier England the county council borrows separately from the districts, and police, fire, combined authorities, national parks and the GLA group borrow separately again — those bodies are in the UK total but have no page here. Every quarter is restated at each release.

Gross borrowing, not net of investments or assets. A high figure is not by itself a problem: much council borrowing funds housing, regeneration and infrastructure with income attached. Every quarter is restated at each MHCLG release.

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