Watchtower
Council report pack · FOI / briefing attachment
Central Bedfordshire
Unitary authority · E06000056
Pack compiled from the committed snapshot dates below. Print this page to stamp the time on this line for the PDF.
- Council snapshot 13 Sept 2026 · generated 13 Sept 2026
- Parliament snapshot 13 Sept 2026 (MP bridge only)
- Geography: England upper-tier and unitary authorities plus London boroughs (ONS CTYUA, December 2025). Lower-tier shire districts are not primary rows.
Outstanding borrowing
£820.9m
£820,922,000 · as of 30 Jun 2026
Debt per resident
£2,553
Using population of 321,605
Population
321,605
ONS mid-year · 30 Jun 2025
Recorded crime rate
47.3 per 1,000
14,940 offences · Year ending March 2026
Control
Independent
IND min
GE 2024 overlapping seats
5
Plurality: Labour
Identity
Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority in the England CTYUA / unitary / London borough snapshot. ONS code E06000056. Shire districts are not primary rows.
Outstanding borrowing
Central Bedfordshire reported £820,922,000 of outstanding borrowing as at 30 Jun 2026 (Q1 2026–27 (as at 30 June 2026)). That is total outstanding borrowing (all sources, including loans from other local authorities). About £2,553 per resident.
This is a stock: how much external borrowing the council still owed lenders on the MHCLG live-table date — not the year’s budget deficit or an in-year overspend.
Figures converted from £ thousand as published. This is a stock of outstanding borrowing, not the annual deficit.
Population
321,605 usual residents (Mid-2025 (2023 local authority boundaries)), as of 30 Jun 2025.
Recorded crime
14,940 police-recorded offences excluding fraud, a rate of 47.3 per 1,000.
Police force / area: Bedfordshire.
Community Safety Partnership: Central Bedfordshire.
Police-recorded offences excluding fraud, published by ONS / Home Office for Community Safety Partnership (CSP) areas, shown as a rate per 1,000 residents where published.
Who runs the council
IND min on a council of 63 seats.
- Labour 4
- Conservative 20
- Liberal Democrats 8
- Green 1
- Reform UK 2
- Other 28
IND min; 63 seats (Lab 4, Con 20, LD 8, Green 1, Reform 2, other 28)
GE 2024 overlap and MP bridge
Labour won 3 of 5 overlapping constituency/constituencies Parliamentary constituencies do not match council boundaries exactly.
| Constituency | Sitting MP | Party | Join |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dunstable and Leighton BuzzardE14001206 | Alex Mayer | Labour | Matched on constituency name |
| HitchinE14001289 | Alistair Strathern | Labour | Matched on constituency name |
| Luton South and South BedfordshireE14001346 | Rachel Hopkins | Labour | Matched on constituency name |
| Mid BedfordshireE14001359 | Blake Stephenson | Conservative | Matched on constituency name |
| North BedfordshireE14001384 | Richard Fuller | Conservative | Matched on constituency name |
Joined on constituency name against the committed Members snapshot. ONS PCON codes are shown; the Members API has no ONS codes, so a code-level join is not available. Name-only joins are labelled. Full MP packs: Alex Mayer, Alistair Strathern, Rachel Hopkins, Blake Stephenson, Richard Fuller.
Sources and as-of dates
Full URLs are printed so this page can be saved as a PDF and attached without losing the originals. Dates are the as-of on the committed snapshot, not the moment a publisher last edited a page.
| Topic | Source | URL | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borrowing | MHCLG — Borrowing and investment live table, Q1 2026 to 2027Q1 2026–27 (as at 30 June 2026) | https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-local-government-finance | 30 Jun 2026 |
| Population | ONS — Estimates of the population for England and Wales, mid-2025Mid-2025 (2023 local authority boundaries) | https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/estimatesofthepopulationforenglandandwales | 30 Jun 2025 |
| Crime | ONS / Home Office — Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables (Tables C2 and C4)Year ending March 2026 | https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables | 31 Mar 2026 |
| Control / composition | Open Council Data UK — GB council compositions 2016–20262026 composition snapshot (shortly after the May local elections / by-elections) | https://www.opencouncildata.co.uk/history.php | 1 May 2026 |
| Local election / composition note | Open Council Data UK council compositions and councillor file, 2026 | https://www.opencouncildata.co.uk/productsAndDownloads.php | 1 May 2026 |
| GE 2024 overlap | House of Commons Library — General election 2024 results (CBP-10009) | https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10009/ | 4 Jul 2024 |
| Sitting MPs (bridge) | UK Parliament Members API (committed snapshot) | https://members-api.parliament.uk/ | 13 Sept 2026 |
Methodology pointers (local Watchtower pages): Council sources and definitions · Parliament methodology · How money registers work. Read those before treating a figure as complete.