The figure, nearly £970,000, represents a doubling of expenditure on 1996-97 levels, the public money watchdog has said.
The alliance also found six local authorities which are spending more than £5m a year on self-promotion while Birmingham City Council spent more than £9m.Nearly 50% of councils have increased their spending on publicity since 2006-07.
However, at least 218 councils have decreased spending collectively cutting £25m from their budgets.
Chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, Matthew Elliott, said: ‘While we salute the 218 councils who have cut spending on publicity, the 224 councils who have increased spending should hang their heads in shame. In the middle of a recession, councils need to cut back on propaganda and spin doctors and deliver savings to taxpayers.’
The Local Government Association denied that the figures were too high and that councils were ‘engaging in spin’ to publicise their work.
A spokesperson said: ‘To suggest that councils are employing armies of spin doctors and wasting money on publicity machines is absurd beyond belief. People need to know how to access the £100bn worth of vital services that councils provide every year.’
This time last year the campaigning alliance looked into the growth of town hall spending on publicity over the last decade. Now the first paper in the new Council Spending Uncovered series updates the data for the last financial year.
To read the Tax Payers' Alliance full report, click here.
