ScotlandCounted

Your money. Their choices.

What is your council doing with the money?

You pay for your council. This section shows what they promised and what really happened. The watchdogs checked. Every fact links to the paper it came from.

What this means

Nothing here is a guess. Every number comes from an official paper. Each one is linked, so you can check it yourself.

Where something cannot be checked, the page says so. A gap is better than a made-up number.

Counted so far, across every published record

11

goals they set themselves, missed

37

watchdog warnings still open

32

councils checked in full so far

The bit nobody explains

31 of Scotland’s 32 councils said they needed more money this year.

Only South Lanarkshire said it had money left over. Their money from the Scottish Government went up 2% that year, not down, even after prices rose. And the amount they say they are short has stayed about the same for seven years running. It works out at about 3p in every pound they spend.

The law says a council cannot plan to spend more than it gets, so the gap always gets closed. The biggest single way they closed it was your council tax, up 7.7% on average, for the second year in a row.

Open any council below to see how it works, and what yours did.

The money

What they got. What they spent. The gaps they have not closed.

The results

The goals they set for themselves. Met or missed, in their own figures.

The watchdogs

What the auditors found when they looked.

All 32 council areas

Pick your council

32 of 32 detailed council records published

See all local poverty figures →

Start typing a council name, such as Glasgow, Fife or Highland.

Showing all 32 councils in alphabetical order

Blue border = this council has a full record. It does not mean the council passed or failed. Red only appears when an official source says a goal was missed. Nothing is marked red on our say-so.

Detailed council record

Dumfries and Galloway

What they promised, what happened, and what the watchdogs found.

Read the council record →

Seen something that makes you angry?

Do not shout at the telly. Your MSP decides how councils are funded, and your councillors answer to you. Put in your postcode and I will write the email for you.

One simple next step

Write to the people in chargeSee the poverty figures first

Not ready to write yet?

Get told when the figures change

Councils publish new figures every year, and almost nobody hears about it. I read the audits and the budget papers when they land, and send one email when the numbers move. A few times a year. Nothing else, ever.

One email when the data changes

A few emails a year, when the figures update. Your address is forwarded to me by Web3Forms, used for nothing else, and never shared.