Agenda item

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

Appendices to follow.

Members are reminded to watch back the training recording before the meeting, which can be found if you click here 

The Corporate Director Resources and Section 151 Officer submitted a report on the Statements of Accounts. She reminded members that training material for this had been issued, and that as this was a draft document pre-audit, it could still be subject to change before it came to committee for final approval in September.

The Corporate Director Resources introduced the report and explained the format of the Statement of Accounts, highlighting the extension of the deadline to produce a draft set of accounts as set out in the narrative report. The deadline had been extended from the 31 May 2021 to 31 July 2021 for the draft and from 31 July to 30 September for the post-audit version. This means an extra committee meeting in September for the signing off of the final accounts is required.

As in previous years, in order to assist with the interpretation of the report and to demonstrate robust Member scrutiny prior to approval, the Corporate Director Resources and the Head of Finance submitted a set of Questions and Answers which highlighted a number of key issues arising from the accounts, particularly in a year impacted by the pandemic. The Corporate Director Resources and the Head of Finance drew attention in particular to the following questions and answers:

·         Q2 (concerns around revenue variances)

·         Q3 (top-ups to the New Homes Bonus Reserve, Capital Investment Reserve, property Investment Reserve and the Leisure Management Reserve)

·         Q6 (loss on rental charges)

·         Q7 (loss of interest received)

·         Q8 (savings on Employee Costs)

·         Q11 (underspend on Fuel and Car Allowances)

·         Q16 (underspend on the Community Payback Scheme)

·         Q20 (unspent Covid-19 grants)

·         Q21 (additional income from the Sales, Fees and Charges Income Compensation Scheme)

·         Q24 (revenue slippage)

·         Q25 (three highest areas of revenue slippage – YMCA leisure centre subsidy, Council Tax Hardship Fund and employee budgets in Finance and Parks and Open Spaces)

·         Q27 (an explanation of revenue, capital and inappropriate capitalisation of expenditure as mentioned in the External Audit Report)

·         Q28 (three largest areas of capital expenditure – vehicle replacement, Disabled Facilities Grants, and restoration of The Mount)

·         Q32 (movements on the Leisure, Health and Community Engagement and Resources Portfolios)

·         Q34 (increase in Current Assets)

·         Q35 (increase in Current Liabilities)

·         Q37 (increase in Non-Domestic Rates Equalisation Reserve)

·         Q40 (Collection Fund and income from collected council tax)

·         Q41 (some outstanding recommendations from the 2019/2020 accounts due to the pandemic, which may be repeated in the next accounts)

Members of the Committee asked questions and made comments, as the Statement of Accounts was being considered, supported by the questions and answers document, including references to the following issues:

·         The choice of which earmarked reserves would be topped up

·         Performance issues caused by  inadequate resources

·         Underspent grants due to be paid back to central government

·         The possibility for Project Neptune to bring additional revenue to the Council