Total revenue spending by councils on services dropped by 0.7% to £89.8bn during 2017/18, compared to the previous year.
Final outturn data released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the largest decrease was on education services, due to academy conversion.
The services with the largest increases in expenditure were adult social care, up by 2.8% to £15.3bn in 2017-18, and children’s social care, up by 4.2% to £8.8bn.
In 2017-18, local authorities were able to raise council tax by up to an additional 3% under the adult social care referendum principle threshold.
Also, in Spring 2017, £2bn of supplementary funding for local authorities was announced through the improved Better Care Fund grant.
