Cornwall Council Debt Clock
A live counter of Cornwall Council's external borrowing, updated continuously from the most recently published Statement of Accounts.
Your share of Cornwall Council's debt
£2,591
Cornwall Council owes £1,511,785,796 in external borrowing — and rising.
The number, in context
Cornwall Council's external borrowing has grown steadily over the last decade, funded through the Public Works Loan Board and the open market. Servicing that debt — the interest line in the council's revenue accounts — competes directly with spending on social care, highways, and statutory services. The clock above tracks the headline figure; the related pages below break down the spending it pays for.
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Frequently asked questions
- How is the figure calculated?
- We anchor on Cornwall Council's audited Statement of Accounts, taking the total external borrowing reported at each financial year-end (31 March). Between published year-ends, the clock interpolates linearly. Past the most recent published year-end, the clock continues at the most recent year-on-year growth rate.
- Is the number real-time?
- No — Cornwall Council does not publish a real-time borrowing feed. The animation simulates continuous accrual based on the most recently published audited accounts. The figure is accurate on each year-end anchor date and interpolated between them.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- The published Statement of Accounts is the only data source. See the 'Sources' section below for the exact PDF citations.
- Can I embed this on my own site?
- Yes. Copy any of the embed snippets below — a plain iframe, a one-tag JavaScript embed that resizes itself, or a PNG for Markdown. The credit link must remain in the snippet — it is the only way readers can verify the source.
- Why include a 'per-resident' figure?
- Total borrowing is a hard number to feel. Dividing by Cornwall's population (≈583,000) gives readers a concrete sense of their share of the obligation. The figure is illustrative, not legal: residents do not personally owe this debt.
Sources
Anchor figures are sourced from Cornwall Council's published Statement of Accounts:
- 2024-03-31 — £1,272,991,000 · Statement of Accounts (Total borrowing per the 2023/24 Statement of Accounts)
- 2025-03-31 — £1,382,732,000 · Statement of Accounts (Total borrowing per the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts)
Most recent anchor: 2025-03-31. The clock will next be refreshed when the following financial year's audited accounts are published (typically July).