Swansea Council owes £629.2m — more than any local authority in Wales apart from Cardiff — according to new analysis of government borrowing data.
The figures, compiled by campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government live tables, show local authority debt across the UK reached a record £154.6 billion in 2025-26 — up £6 billion, or 4.1%, in a single year.
Welsh councils account for £6.7 billion of that total, and every council in south west Wales appears in the dataset.
What every council owes
Swansea’s £629.2m works out at £2,504 for every resident — above the UK average of £2,232, and the sixth highest per-resident figure of the 22 Welsh councils.
Carmarthenshire owes £434.1m — the fourth highest total in Wales — or £2,275 per resident, also close to the UK average.
Neath Port Talbot’s debt stands at £278.6m, or £1,945 per resident. Pembrokeshire owes £201.8m, working out at £1,605 per head.
At the other end of the table sits Bridgend, which owes £97.6m — £661 per resident, the lowest of any council in Wales.
| Council | Total debt | Per resident |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | £1,147.7m | £2,989 |
| Swansea | £629.2m | £2,504 |
| Wrexham | £542.5m | £3,924 |
| Carmarthenshire | £434.1m | £2,275 |
| Flintshire | £362.3m | £2,325 |
| Powys | £361.9m | £2,680 |
| Denbighshire | £337.0m | £3,431 |
| Neath Port Talbot | £278.6m | £1,945 |
| Caerphilly | £278.4m | £1,574 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | £272.6m | £1,122 |
| Conwy | £232.2m | £2,021 |
| Pembrokeshire | £201.8m | £1,605 |
| Monmouthshire | £191.7m | £2,019 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | £181.9m | £1,340 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | £179.8m | £3,049 |
| Newport | £169.1m | £1,007 |
| Gwynedd | £148.0m | £1,225 |
| Blaenau Gwent | £136.8m | £2,016 |
| Ceredigion | £124.0m | £1,708 |
| Torfaen | £123.5m | £1,312 |
| Anglesey | £121.7m | £1,761 |
| Bridgend | £97.6m | £661 |
The overwhelming majority of the debt is owed to the Public Works Loan Board, the government body that lends to councils. It accounts for 98% of Carmarthenshire’s borrowing, 87% of Swansea’s, 84% of Pembrokeshire’s, 82% of Neath Port Talbot’s and 80% of Bridgend’s.
Across the UK, council debt has more than doubled since 2009-10, rising from £70 billion to £154.6 billion — and the average debt per resident has doubled over the same period.
But the raw figures do not tell the whole story — because council borrowing is not the same as household debt, and much of it funds assets residents use every day.
A large share of Swansea’s borrowing sits against its council housing stock: the council is investing nearly £70m in council homes this year alone, as part of a £267m four-year building and improvement programme funded largely through borrowing repaid from rents.
Carmarthenshire’s borrowing similarly underpins a £146.7m five-year capital programme covering school upgrades, town centre works and harbour repairs.
‘The figures are misleading’ — what the councils say
All three of the area’s biggest councils defended their borrowing when Swansea Bay News put the figures to them — and Swansea went furthest, taking aim at the analysis itself.
“The TaxPayers’ Alliance figures are misleading,” a spokesperson for Swansea Council said. “Swansea is the second-largest council in Wales, so it is not surprising that it has one of the largest borrowing programmes, behind only Cardiff. The level of borrowing reflects the scale of investment in services and infrastructure that benefits our communities now and in the future.”
Much of that investment, the council said, had gone into building new and improved schools and delivering new homes, alongside regeneration and commercial projects that “support economic growth and generate income that can be reinvested in local services”.
The council said it had “consistently been recognised by regulators at Audit Wales as one of the most financially secure councils in Wales, with strong cash reserves and high levels of financial resilience” — and that with an annual budget of around £1 billion, repaying borrowing represented “only a small proportion” of its overall spending.
The spokesperson added: “Looking at borrowing on its own can be misleading. Most people would agree that when taking out a mortgage or loan, it is not just the amount borrowed that matters. The interest rate and repayment terms are equally important.”
Some of Swansea’s most recent borrowing was secured at a fixed rate of 1.96%, locked in for 50 years, when rates were at historic lows — replacing older debt taken out at rates of up to 8%. That switch, the council said, had allowed it to invest around £200 million “without increasing pressure on existing budgets”, calling it “an exceptionally good deal for Swansea taxpayers”.
Carmarthenshire confirmed the figures were correct — and said its ranking simply reflected its size. The county is the third largest in Wales by geography and the fourth largest by both population and a number of financial measures, a spokesperson said, adding: “On this basis the ranking is consistent.”
Its borrowing funds schools, care homes and highways works, along with investment to upgrade and expand the county’s stock of more than 9,000 council houses, with repayment money set aside in the budget under public accounting rules.
The council said it was satisfied the debt was affordable and sustainable, with its treasury strategy drawn up alongside specialist external advisors, approved by full council at budget setting and reported publicly every quarter. Its budget has been underspent over successive years, the spokesperson said, “further indicating prudence”.
Neath Port Talbot Council pointed to the gap between what it owes and what it owns. A spokesperson said: “Council borrowing is used to fund investment in long term assets. As of March 2026, the Council had long term assets of £1.024 billion compared to debt of £278.6m.
“All of the Council’s debt is on a fixed interest basis and provision has already been made for repayment within the Council’s current revenue budget. On that basis the Council is absolutely satisfied that the debt is affordable and sustainable.”
Where borrowing carries risk
Borrowing does carry risk, however — and questions over what taxpayers stand behind are live locally. Swansea Council has declined to put a figure on worst-case losses on the Kilvey Hill Skyline scheme, where costs have risen to £10.2m.
Bridgend — despite carrying the lowest debt in Wales — stepped in this year with a £5.37m deal to buy the Rhiw Shopping Centre, the kind of commercial property purchase that drove a borrowing boom elsewhere before the PWLB effectively banned buying assets purely for yield in 2020.
And Carmarthenshire acts as a lender itself: the Scarlets were last week given 15 more years to repay a £2.6m council loan originally due in 2023.
The debt figures land amid sustained pressure on council budgets. This year Swansea residents saw a 3.9% council tax rise alongside £13m of savings, while Neath Port Talbot set its budget facing a £16.6m shortfall.
Carmarthenshire warned of service cuts and a 6.5% council tax rise amid a £25m gap, and council leaders across Wales warned last autumn that the Welsh Government’s £6.4bn settlement would not be enough to protect frontline services.
The national picture
Nationally, Transport for London was the most indebted body at £14 billion, while Birmingham — which has already effectively declared bankruptcy — owed £3.5 billion. Woking in Surrey carried the highest debt per resident in the UK at £20,679, nearly ten times the national average.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance briefing says taxpayers “ultimately stand behind these obligations”, arguing that transparency over the scale and distribution of council debt “is essential”.
It points to seven councils issuing eleven section 114 notices between 2018 and 2023 — “effectively declaring bankruptcy” — as evidence of the pressure parts of the sector are under.
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