Borrowing debts of councils across county up £27m in just a year, study reveals

WORRYING TREND AS LOAN BILL ACROSS UK TO FUND SERVICES RISES BY £7.8BN

- By JON COOPER

DERBYSHIRE has seen an overall combined increase in borrowing debt of over £27m across the county's principal councils in a year, according to a BBC analysis of Government data, which shows a worrying rise in local authority debt.

A BBC Shared Data Unit team’s analysis of information from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government found the combined borrowing for all 382 councils across the UK has reached over £122.2 billion owed to lenders, and it rose by 7% last year, or £7.8bn, when comparing the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.

The position across Derbyshire is by no means the worst overall by comparison, according to the analysis, but Derby City Council did see a £23,574,000 increase in debt from £564,335,000 in 2023 to £587,909,000 in 2024 - the equivalent of a 4.37% rise. And NE Derbyshire District Council saw a debt of £142,809,000 in 2023 increase by £18,496,000 to £161,305,000 in 2024 - an equivalent of a 12.95% rise - but it argued nearly all of this relates to Housing Revenue Account debt without which its debt can be judged as ‘negligible’

A council spokesperson said: “The Housing Revenue Account debt makes up 95% of the council's total debt with less than only £7m relating to the General Fund.”

Jonathan Carr-West, of the Local Government Information Unit, said: “I think the reason councils are in financial trouble is because we have systemically underfunded Local Government for the past 15 years.

“We've created a system in which there is not enough money in the sector and in which councils have become reliant on their own ability to generate money, whether through local taxes or return on investment”