Provisional (methodology v1.0). Weights and measures may change as more data is added.
Separate leagues. England, Scotland and Wales are measured differently, so a rank in one is not comparable with another. Why. England is stable; Scotland and Wales are provisional.
How we score councils in Wales
Wales methodology v1.0 (provisional). Service quality across five services, value for money on two (spend per head compared with councils of similar need and results), and financial health (usable reserves and borrowing, from Audit Wales).
A separate league
Wales's councils are ranked against each other, not against England's. The services councils run, the bodies that inspect them and the way each measure is defined all differ between the nations, so a rank in Wales cannot be compared with a rank in England. The method is the same: the same pillars and weights, and the same way of combining scores. The measures are not.
Who is ranked
21 councils in Wales. Denbighshire is shown but not ranked: Denbighshire has returned no planning data to the Welsh Government since early 2024-25; held back from the ranking until it reports.
What we measure
Service quality (60% of the overall score)
Planning (weight 1 within service quality)
- Planning decisions made on time (higher is better; weight 1 within planning) Development management quarterly survey: decisions within 8 weeks (16 with an EIA) or an agreed extension, summed over the four quarters of the latest complete financial year. Denbighshire has returned no data since early 2024-25 and is held back.
Source: Welsh Government — Development management quarterly survey
Waste & recycling (weight 1 within service quality)
- Municipal waste reused, recycled or composted (statutory target measure) (higher is better; weight 0.5 within waste & recycling) Includes non-household municipal waste, unlike England's household measure.
Source: Welsh Government — Local authority municipal waste management (StatsWales) - Residual municipal waste per dwelling (lower is better; weight 0.5 within waste & recycling) Municipal waste not reused, recycled or composted (tonnes) / dwellings. Municipal waste includes non-household waste, so this is not comparable with England's household measure.
Source: Calculated from StatsWales waste, dwellings, temporary accommodation and population data
Complaints (weight 0.5 within service quality)
- Complaints to the Ombudsman per 1,000 residents (lower is better; weight 0.5 within complaints) PSOW annual letter, Appendix A (service complaints, as published)
Source: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales — annual letters - Share of closed complaints with an Ombudsman intervention (lower is better; weight 0.5 within complaints) PSOW annual letter, Appendix C. Small counts - interpret with care.
Source: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales — annual letters
Adult social care (weight 1 within service quality)
- Reablement that reduced or mitigated the need for support (higher is better; weight 0.5 within adult social care) AD/011a + AD/011c as a share of packages completed with a known outcome. Official statistics in development.
Source: Welsh Government — Adult care and support (StatsWales) - Adult safeguarding enquiries completed within 7 working days (higher is better; weight 0.5 within adult social care) AD/024 as a share of AD/023 (reports needing an enquiry). Timeliness, not quality. Official statistics in development.
Source: Welsh Government — Adult safeguarding (StatsWales)
Homelessness (weight 1 within service quality)
- Homelessness prevented (section 66): successful prevention (higher is better; weight 0.45 within homelessness) Successful prevention as a share of households threatened with homelessness who were given prevention help (the published percentage; counts are rounded to multiples of three). Latest year may be provisional.
Source: Welsh Government — Homelessness (StatsWales) - Homelessness relieved (section 73): successfully relieved (higher is better; weight 0.35 within homelessness) Successfully relieved as a share of eligible homeless households owed the duty to help secure accommodation. Latest year may be provisional.
Source: Welsh Government — Homelessness (StatsWales) - Homeless people in temporary accommodation per 1,000 residents (lower is better; weight 0.2 within homelessness) People in temporary accommodation at 31 March / population. Driven heavily by local housing costs.
Source: Calculated from StatsWales waste, dwellings, temporary accommodation and population data
Value for money (20% of the overall score)
Adult social care value for money
Compares adult social care results with social services spend per head, after allowing for need. We estimate the cost expected for each council from population aged 65 and over and older people in income deprivation and its adult social care results, then score a cost below that expectation as better value. Results already count under service quality, so they are not counted again here. Revenue outturn
Waste value for money
Compares waste & recycling results with local environmental services spend per head, after allowing for need. We estimate the cost expected for each council from people in income deprivation and its waste & recycling results, then score a cost below that expectation as better value. Results already count under service quality, so they are not counted again here. Revenue outturn: waste, street cleaning, environmental health
Financial health (20% of the overall score)
Reserves (weight 1 within financial health)
- Usable reserves as a share of net cost of services (higher is better; weight 0.85 within reserves) Audit Wales, Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024), Table 3. Usable reserves not restricted by law (general fund, earmarked reserves and schools' balances; not council housing reserves, capital receipts or unapplied capital grants), from unaudited 2023-24 accounts. Where a council had not filed its 2023-24 accounts, the 2022-23 figure is shown and noted.
Source: Audit Wales — Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024) - Change in usable reserves over the year (higher is better; weight 0.15 within reserves) Audit Wales, Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024), Table 3, 2022-23 to 2023-24. Not available for councils that had not filed their 2023-24 accounts.
Source: Audit Wales — Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024)
Debt (weight 1 within financial health)
- Total borrowing as a share of net cost of services (lower is better; weight 1 within debt) Audit Wales, Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024), Table 4, from unaudited 2023-24 accounts (2022-23 where marked). Includes borrowing for council housing and for investment, which the table does not separate.
Source: Audit Wales — Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024)
How the scores are combined
- Each measure is converted so that higher always means better.
- Extreme values are capped at the 5th and 95th percentiles, so one outlier can't dominate.
- Each measure becomes a standard score: how far a council is above or below the average, in standard deviations.
- Service-area scores are weighted averages of their measures. A council must have data covering at least 60% of the weight to receive a score; if a measure is missing, the council's other measures in that area share its weight in proportion to their own.
- Service areas are combined into pillars, and pillars into the overall score, using the weights above. Scores are re-standardised at each step, so the published weights are the weights that actually apply.
Value-for-money cost models
Expected cost comes from a least-squares regression across all 21 councils. Each figure is the change in expected cost for a one-unit change in that factor. R² is the share of the differences in cost between councils that the model explains. For waste it is low (under 20%): need and results explain little of why councils' costs differ, so those value-for-money scores are close to a plain cost comparison. Treat them with caution.
| Service | Factor | Effect on expected cost |
|---|---|---|
| Adult social care value for money Social services spend per head. 21 councils, R² 0.45 | Baseline | £188 |
| Population aged 65 and over | £24 | |
| Older people in income deprivation | £18 | |
| Service results (per standard deviation better) | −£6.9 | |
| Waste value for money Local environmental services spend per head. 21 councils, R² 0.12 | Baseline | £156 |
| People in income deprivation | £0.54 | |
| Service results (per standard deviation better) | −£9.6 |
Service quality, adjusted for need
Alongside the main ranking we show a second view of service quality that allows for need. It is not part of the overall rank. For adult social care and waste & recycling, we measured how each service's score tends to move with its need measures across the 21 councils and took that part out. Planning, complaints and homelessness are left as they are, because we have no measure of their need.
| Service | Need measure | Effect on the service score | Variation explained |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult social care | Older people in income deprivation | −0.28 | 57% |
| Population aged 65 and over | −0.21 | ||
| Waste & recycling | People in income deprivation | −0.06 | 7% |
Effects are in standard deviations of the service score, per unit of the need measure.
The adjusted and unadjusted ranks have a rank correlation of 0.86; the largest move is 9 places and 2 of 21 councils move more than 5. Need is only partly captured by these measures, so treat this view as indicative.
How reliable are the rankings?
We re-ran the rankings under reasonable alternatives. Each row shows how closely the new order matches the published one (a rank correlation of 1 would be identical) and how far councils moved.
| Change | Rank correlation | Median move | Largest move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pillars 50/25/25 | 0.987 | 1 | 2 |
| Pillars 70/15/15 | 0.979 | 0 | 3 |
| Pillars equal thirds | 0.822 | 2 | 9 |
| Equal weight for every service | 0.974 | 1 | 4 |
| No temporary accommodation | 0.987 | 1 | 3 |
| No cap on outliers | 0.995 | 0 | 1 |
With few councils a single move is a large share of the table, so the bands (top quarter, upper middle, lower middle, bottom quarter) are a more reliable guide than exact positions.
Likely range for each council
Each council page gives a likely range for its overall rank. We re-ran the ranking 500 times, each time multiplying every service-area and pillar weight by a random factor between 0.5 and 1.5. The range runs from the 5th to the 95th percentile of the council's rank across those re-runs, and always includes its published rank. The median range spans 5 places of 21. The ranges don't cover errors in the source data or measures we don't have.
Known gaps and limits
- Financial health uses unaudited 2023-24 accounts, the latest Audit Wales has published for every council, so it is about two years older than the rest. Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil had not filed 2023-24 accounts, so their 2022-23 figures are used. Reserves include schools' balances, and borrowing includes borrowing for council housing and investment.
- Denbighshire is not ranked. It has returned no planning data to the Welsh Government since early 2024-25.
- There are no children's services or special educational needs measures. Adult social care is measured by reablement outcomes and how quickly safeguarding enquiries are completed; these are official statistics in development.
- Ombudsman complaint counts are small, so complaints carry half the weight of other services.
Figures not published or withheld
These are listed, not hidden. Where a figure is withheld it is because it looks inconsistent with the same council's other figures; we have not changed it, and it returns if the publisher confirms or revises it.
| Council | Measure | Period | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denbighshire | Planning decisions made on time | 2025-26 | Not published | No planning returns to the Welsh Government for 2025-26; held back from any Welsh ranking until it reports |
Data and licence
Every figure is taken from an official source and traced to the file it came from. Sources: Welsh Government — Development management quarterly survey; Welsh Government — Local authority municipal waste management (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Homelessness (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Homelessness: temporary accommodation (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Local authority revenue outturn (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Council tax (StatsWales); ONS — Mid-year population estimates, via StatsWales; Welsh Government — Dwelling stock estimates (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Adult care and support (StatsWales); Welsh Government — Adult safeguarding (StatsWales); Public Services Ombudsman for Wales — annual letters; Calculated from StatsWales waste, dwellings, temporary accommodation and population data; Audit Wales — Financial sustainability of local government (December 2024). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Reproducibility
These results are methodology v1.0 on data snapshot 15c425a6b691, generated 2026-10-27. The snapshot identifies the exact source files behind every figure.