Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 19 March 2026

About Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Demographics

Dudley Metropolitan Borough is an urban authority in the West Midlands, with a population of 323,500 (Census 2021). Dudley is a market town which lies six miles southeast of Wolverhampton and 8 miles northwest of Birmingham and is known as the heart of the Black Country with its industrial heritage and culture. Dudley has an index of multiple deprivation of 6 (1 is the least deprived, 10 is the most deprived) and is ranked 74th out of 153 local authorities. Dudley has 28% of the population living in the 20% most deprived local authority areas in England.

The proportion of people aged between 18 and 64 (58.20%) is slightly lower than the national average (60.51%). The proportion of people aged over 65 years is 20.45% which is slightly higher than the national average of 18.69%.  

Most of the Dudley population identifies themselves as White, making up 84.89% White British, with 8.36% Asian or Asian British, 2.5% Black, Black British, African or Black Caribbean, 2.8% Mixed or Multiple, and 1.4% as other.

Dudley is part of the Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS) along with Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.  

There are 72 councillors, 3 for each of the 24 wards in Dudley, which has been a Conservative controlled local authority since 2019. The makeup of councillors is 35 Conservative, 24 Labour, 5 Liberal Democrat, 6 Black Country Party and 2 independent councillors.  

Financial facts  

• The local authority estimated that in 2023-2024, its total budget would be £523,300,000.00. Its actual spend for the year was £546,497,000.00, which was £23,197,000.00 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated it would spend £122,285,000.00 of its total budget on Adult Social Care in 2023-2024. Its actual spend was £132,113,000.00, which was £9,828,000.00 more than estimated.
• In 2023-2024, 24.17% of the budget was spent on Adult Social Care.
• The Local Authority has raised the full Adult Social Care precept for 2023-2024, with a value of 2%. Please note the amount raised through Adult Social Care precept varies from Local Authority to Local Authority.
• Approximately 6050 people were accessing long-term Adult Social Care support, and approximately 2675 people were accessing short-term Adult Social Care support in 2023-2024. Local authorities spend money on a range of Adult Social Care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.