Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer).

Presented by Clare James, Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) and Veronica Wilson, Head of Finance.

Members are requested to review the Statement of Accounts training video prior to the meeting if not already done so – Member training Statement of Accounts 202223 A&S Committee.mp4 (sharepoint.com).

Members can review the draft Statement of Accounts 2022/23 here.

Supplementary documents for this item can be found here

The Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) submitted a report on the Statement of Accounts and the final capital and revenue position of the financial year 2022/23.

The Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) introduced the report to members. She reminded members that prior to this meeting, a recorded training presentation had been circulated.

She highlighted that the statutory deadline, for signing off the audited accounts (30 September 2023) would not be met and this was a national issue.

The Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) and the Head of Finance, Veronica Wilson had pre-prepared a Q&A pack for the committee which highlighted the key issues and provided an explanation to the notes to the accounts. The pack was circulated to the members at the start of the meeting.

The Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) addressed questions 1 (narrative statement), 2 (revenue variances), 4 (water rates expenditure), 5 (tree maintenance), 9 (employee costs), 16 (planning fees) and 21 (revenue slippage) in the Q&A pack.

Members raised the following questions around:

·         the on-going RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) problem;

·         whether there was a budget in place for annual tree surveying for public areas;

·         relationship between lower rates of pay and underspend;

·         the underspend on parks and open spaces;

·         salary costs not being impacted by the equal pay issues at other councils;

·         whether planning fees were an income generator or whether they only covered department costs – it was agreed the cost centre account for Development Control would be shared with the committee prior to the next meeting;

·         whether applicants were charged proportionally dependent on scale of the development;

·         housing benefit overpayments;

·         why the council used an external company for enforcing environmental crime fines;

·         costs of living grants funding, and;

·         provision for the revenue slippage items in the 2023/34 accounts;

Officers responded to the questions raised by members.

Councillor Belshaw left the meeting.

The Head of Finance addressed questions 26 (Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement (CIES)), 29 (balance sheet), 31 (long term liabilities) and 34 (officers’ remuneration) in the Q&A pack.

Members raised the following questions around:

·         short term deposits and;

·         the pay gap between the Chief Executive and Directors;

Officers responded to the questions raised by members.

The Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) addressed question 37 (recommendations from last year’s audit) in the Q&A pack.

After concluding the Q&A pack and training on the Statement of Accounts 2022/23, the Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) asked that her thanks to the Finance team and Veronica for their hard work be minuted.

In accordance with paragraph 3.1 of the report, the Chair approved the Statement of Accounts 2022/23.