Form

Annual revenue outturn returns: letter to local authorities

Updated 18 May 2023

Applies to England

Letter from:

Gavin Sayer
Head of Local Authority Revenue Account Data Collections
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
E-mail: lgf1.revenue@levellingup.gov.uk

to:

The Chief Financial Officer

16 May 2023

Dear Sir/Madam,

Statutory Annual Revenue Outturn (RO) Data Return for 2022-23

1. Please find attached:

i) RO form for your authority’s revenue expenditure and financing outturn return for 2022-23

ii) The Points to note and changes document. This includes updated guidance on reporting of CARF and on reserves

iii) Reference documents: specific guidance notes, and general guidance notes^{[footnote 1]}

These have also been emailed to our usual contacts for the RO return in your authority.

2. There have been a modest number of changes to the RO form this year, comprising the straight forward proposals of the consultation conducted in August-September 2022. These changes are detailed in the ‘points to note and changes’ document attached with this letter, and include the following change: expenditure on agency staff is to be reported for each of the 13 broad service groupings.

3. We must remind you that:

i) The information specified on the RO forms is required by the Secretary of State under section 168 of the Local Government Act 1972. The RO 2022-23 return is due by Friday 28 July 2023. Authorities are required to provide their best estimates by the deadline; these will be published as provisional outturn.

ii) You are also required to ensure that a certified return is also emailed by Friday 13 October 2023. Where any further significant updated figures become available subsequently, a further updated form should also be emailed to us, as we will publish at least two further updated data releases^{[footnote 2]}.

4. The completed forms (as well as any queries) should be e-mailed to: lgf1.revenue@levellingup.gov.uk. NB Given the large number of excel forms that we receive by email, if you are sending an email with a query or if you are otherwise seeking a response, please send your message in a separate email without any excel attachment.

Thank you for your continued efforts and co-operation.

Yours faithfully,

Gavin Sayer
Head of Local Authority Expenditure and Borrowing Data Collection
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

1. These guidance documents are attached and will also be uploaded to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-fund-revenue-account-outturn. ↩

2. The data from all local authorities are published to https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing. ↩