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How council spending splits between services
Of every £1 English councils spend, this much goes on the biggest item
40p
Added up from the planned 2025-26 budgets of 317 English councils — about £102.6bn in total net spend on services.
Share of every £1 going on each of ten service areas, ranked from largest to smallest.
How we got this: each council’s planned net spend per service area, added up across England, divided by the national total. District councils don’t run care or schools, so those shares sit lower in the mix.
Councils spend public money on about ten big service areas. This card adds up every council's spending, then shows what share goes on each service.
Most of every £1 goes on two services: adult care and children's services. Everything else shares what is left.
Councils pay for adult social care, children's services, schools, roads, bins, planning, housing, culture and the cost of running the council itself. The shares are different from one council type to another.
Each council's planned budget for 2025-26, published on its own website. We sort each council's spending into the same set of service categories so we can add them up. Values are net spend on services, in pounds.