A SCOTTISH local authority has been named as the third biggest spender on energy in the whole of the UK.

City of Glasgow Council spent £42,388,857 on energy bills in the period April 2022 to March 2023.

This makes the council the third highest spender in the UK, with the two largest spenders being Southwark (£47 million) and City of London (£46,105,357) councils.

The average amount Scottish local authorities spent on energy bills in the same period was £13,395,957.50. The total figure combines spending on power and gas and includes VAT.

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City of Edinburgh Council and Fife Council were the second and third biggest spenders, at £27,455,000 and £24,861,382 respectively.

Meanwhile, the lowest spenders were Clackmannanshire (£2,560,730) and Inverclyde (£4,230,393) councils.

According to the data, the Scottish Government spent £3,626,079 on gas and electricity bills in the same period.

Some of the biggest high-profile spenders include Network Rail (£787,210,534), the BBC (£39,053,082), the Bank of England (£11,639,228) and the Houses of Parliament (£7,073,134).

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After Network Rail, the Ministry of Defence was the highest-spending Government office, at £322,797,821.

The data was released by Box Power CIC, a not-for-profit energy consultancy firm.

It found local authorities in Scotland spent less on electricity and gas than other councils across the UK.

The typical spend across the UK was 32p/p/kwh for electricity and 9p/p/kwh for gas, but councils in Scotland typically purchased for less than this, at an average of 21p/p/kwh for electricity and 8p/p/kwh for gas.

Scottish local authorities accounted for one third of the cheapest local authorities surveyed by the consultancy firm, which submitted freedom of information requests to each local authority.

See the full list of Scottish local authority spending on energy below, for the period April 2022 to March 2023.

  • City of Glasgow: £42,388,857
  • City of Edinburgh: £27,455,000
  • Fife: £24,861,382
  • Aberdeen City: £22,825,223
  • North Lanarkshire: £20,361,626
  • South Lanarkshire: £19,063,488
  • Aberdeenshire: £16,055,982
  • Highland: £15,520,524
  • Falkirk: £13,159,505
  • Dumfries and Galloway: £9,596,156
  • East Renfrewshire: £9,476,671
  • Dundee City: £8,385,104
  • Renfrewshire: £8,283,564
  • West Dunbartonshire: £7,728,427
  • Angus: £7,689,360
  • North Ayrshire: £6,852,247
  • West Lothian: £6,239,558
  • East Ayrshire: £6,225,045
  • East Dunbartonshire: £6,206,908
  • South Ayrshire: £5,952,645
  • Argyll & Bute: £5,286,055
  • Midlothian: £5,206,559
  • Stirling: £5,172,696
  • Perth & Kinross: £5,159,000
  • Moray: £5,057,003
  • Inverclyde: £4,230,393
  • Clackmannanshire: £2,560,730