FOI/202600508810 · FOI · unclear
Local Authority budget allocation query: FOI release
Information requested
How was the 10 billion pounds from the Labour government in Westminster allocated and distributed throughout the council areas?
This money was announced in the November budget yet no benefit has been seen nationwide to this tune.
What has Holyrood done? Or not done?
Response
The UK Autumn Budget in November 2025 confirmed an additional £465 million of resource and £309 million of capital block grant funding for the Scottish Government over the Spending Review period (2026-27 to 2028-29 for resource and up to 2029-30 for capital investment).
These amounts are in addition to the uplifts confirmed at Phase 2 of the Spending Review in June 2025 which covered the period to 2028-29 for resource and 2029-30 for capital and financial transactions.
Spending plans for all funding confirmed as at the UK Autumn Budget was set out in the 2026-27 Scottish Budget and multi-year Scottish Spending Review 2026 which was published on 13 January 2026.
The 2026-27 Scottish Budget provides a real-terms increase in the Local Government Settlement delivering record funding of £15.7 billion, including a quarter of a billion pounds of unrestricted General Revenue Grant.
The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
You can find further information in the Local Government Finance Circular which provides a full breakdown of individual Local Authority funding allocations: Local government finance circular 2/2026: final settlement for 2026 to 2027 - gov.scot
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Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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