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SECTION 1: INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
The tables in this section summarise local authority spending and income. These are broken down to show both capital and revenue accounts and also the split between the different service accounts operated by local authorities. Tables 1 to 3 are summary tables. The tables then split into General Fund, Housing, Trading Services, Superannuation, Special and Common Goods Funds with, where relevant, separate revenue and capital tables given.
Service Accounts
The General Fund is the account within which most transactions of a local authority take place; it is therefore, by far, the largest account.
The Housing Revenue Account ( HRA) records expenditure and income associated with dwellings provided under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987. Housing is the only service where a separate 'ring-fenced' account is required by law. Expenditure and income on other housing services, such as the provision of renovation grants to private homeowners, is charged to the general fund.
Trading Services are local authority services which are, or are intended to be, self-financing through fees and charges levied on the users of the service. Because of the differences between the funding for trading services and other activities, their accounts are maintained separately.
Superannuation, Reserves and Common Good Funds are maintained outside of the general fund.
Capital and revenue accounting
Local authority accounts have two distinct constituent parts, the Revenue Account and the Capital Account.
Revenue Expenditure covers the cost of maintaining local services and includes costs such as employees' salaries and service operating costs. Employee Costs includes salaries, wages, national insurance, superannuation contributions, cash allowances paid to employees (excluding car allowances), redundancy and severance payments, and other employee costs. Operating Costs includes property costs, supplies and services, transport (including car allowances) and plant costs, payment to agencies and other bodies and direct administration expenses (including training).
Revenue Income comes from a variety of sources including Government Grants, local taxes, sales, fees and charges on local authority services.
Capital Expenditure relates to the provision and improvement of tangible fixed assets (such as schools, new houses and machinery) which continue to be of value long after their acquisition.
Capital Income is made up mostly from the sale of these assets.
Accruals accounting
The capital and revenue parts of local authority accounts are now both collected on an Accruals Basis where transactions are reflected in the accounts of the period in which they take place. Prior to 2004-05, capital account figures were recorded on a cash basis, where transactions are recorded in the period in which payment is made or received.
Net and gross amounts
Net Expenditure is gross expenditure minus income. Both gross and net figures are presented in the publication. It is, however, usual to present Revenue expenditure net. For Capital expenditure, the figures are usually presented gross. This is because capital receipts are pooled and the expenditure which they can fund can be carried forward from one year to the next. It is therefore not possible to identify which particular item of capital expenditure has been funded from which receipt.
Capital Expenditure funded from Current Revenue ( CFCR)
This is expenditure from local authority revenue budgets, which has been used to buy capital items. This is identified as a separate category of expenditure in the revenue tables. In order to avoid double counting, the capital tables in the publication excludeCFCR.
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