Look who's there in last place, as London's borough with the lowest service expenditure per resident. Spoiler: it's @LBofBexley - boasting London's 8th highest council tax. Veeery interesting... NB @BonkersBexley 
2. However, this does not mean that @LBofBexley residents get worse services. A big part of council spending is on Education, including "maintained" schools and academies. Academies get money direct from @educationgovuk. More academies, less council spending.
3. @LBofBexley's schools are almost all academies - the same thing in Bromley, opposite in Greenwich - lowering the spending number. The chart shows just how significant Education spending is. (The light orange bars).
@LBofBexley 4. What if we exclude Education? @LBofBexley is still a low-spending borough, 5th from bottom.
@LBofBexley 5. Ask @TeresaONeillLBB and @bexleynews, and they will complain about unfairly low government funding - but won't ever offer details. (Recall that a council gets money from (a) council tax and (b) government grants, 50/50 or thereabouts). Can we look at @LBofBexley's grants?
@LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB @bexleynews 6. Things are looking good for @TeresaONeillLBB's explanation so far: @LBofBexley's grant is second-smallest in London, with only @LBofBromley's lower.
@LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB @bexleynews @LBofBromley 7. Education rears its beautiful head again: "Dedicated Schools Grant" is the biggest item in all but two boroughs. (Will that earn DSG @BonkersBexley attention?) What happens if we exclude DSG? @LBofBexley is third from last, still supporting @TeresaONeillLBB's reasoning.
8. Government grants come in 20+ flavours; to have a better look at them, let's shrink our focus to @LBofBexley and its two neighbours - "blue" @LBofBromley (@SimonFawthrop_1's stomping gorund) and "red" @Royal_Greenwich. Here are all the grants for the three boroughs.
9. Let's remove Dedicated Schools Grant again. Recall that @Royal_Greenwich has a lot of maintained schools, while @LBofBexley and @LBofBromley are thoroughly "academized"; major "apples vs oranges" potential there.
@Royal_Greenwich @LBofBexley @LBofBromley 10. Unfortunately, DSG is not the only hurdle to comparability. Look at "Rent Rebates Granted to HRA Tenants", zero for @LBofBexley and @LBofBromley. It looks like - taking a shortcut here! - a case of "not applicable" for the two Tory boroughs, and we ought to "equalize".
11. @bexleynews may object, but let me also drop the midsize "PFI" category, and arrive at the set of government grants which I - a local-government-finance noob - believe to be comparable across the three boroughs.
@bexleynews 12. There's still too many kinds of grants in the picture. Let's exclude smaller grants (under £25m for each of the three boroughs), and look at the big ones.
@bexleynews 13. Let's look at the last item, Pupil Premium Grant. Why does Greenwich get more? Because it has more poorer households. "The amount ... is decided by how many disadvantaged pupils they have – schools receive funding per pupil premium-eligible child". educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/04/what-i…
@bexleynews 14. Two things to note here. First, there is no reason to expect boroughs to receive "equal" grant amounts. The system's whole point is *redistribution* according to needs and resources. When @bexleynews or @bromleytories insinuate that equal distribution is "fair", they lie.
@bexleynews @BromleyTories 15. Second, nobody in Westminster is deciding how much money to give to @LBofBexley. There is no big bag of money with "Bexley" written on it. Instead, there are many "bags", one for each grant, each having an "allocation formula". Borough's name is not part of that formula.
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley 16. It follows that @TeresaONeillLBB's stories of "unfair" funding of Bexley are dubious. An allocation formula cannot discriminate against a specific borough. It can disadvantage boroughs with specific attributes - say, a stingy Pupil Pemium Grant would hurt poorer places more.
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB 17. ... But I would expect a council leader complaining about "unfair" funding to be able to point to specific "unfair" grants. Neither @bexleynews nor @BromleyTories have been forthcoming - and both Tory council leaders were explicitly asked this question.
@bexleynews (Correction: under £25 per capita)
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB 18. Finally, sometimes how much a council gets from the government in a particular grant depends on that council's own choices. Consider Public Health Grant, where a coucil can go for fewer grant-supported services - receiving less grant money - or more services, receiving more.
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB 19. That may or may not be the reason why Greenwich gets nearly twice as much Public Health Grant money as Bexley or Bromley (and spends twice as much).
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB 20. Let's bring together the three boroughs' main grants (except DSG), expenditure categories (except Education) and band-D council-tax amounts, excluding @MayorofLondon's share. Greenwich has the lowest council tax and the highest government grant.
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB @MayorofLondon 21. But what if we exclude Greenwich Communists and focus on the two Tory boroughs? Bexley gets more money from the government than Bromley - the difference in Social Care Support grants is especially stark - spends slightly less, but charges £200 more in council tax!
@bexleynews @BromleyTories @LBofBexley @TeresaONeillLBB @MayorofLondon @threadreaderapp unroll
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