Issue - meetings

The Director for Corporate Services to submit a report to seek approval for the Statement of Accounts for 2018-19 which have been prepared in accordance with the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 and inform the Committee of the key issues within the accounts. The Chairperson to sign following the meeting.

RESOLVED that:

1)    The Committee APPROVED The Statement of Accounts for 2018-19.

2)    The Chair of the Audit and Standards Committee SIGNED the Statement of Accounts for 2018-19.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The Corporate Services Manager presented The Statement of Accounts to inform the Committee of the key issues within the annual accounts that are prepared in accordance with the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015.

During the discussion the following points were noted:

Though there had been some updates provided to the Statement of Accounts on the evening of the meeting, this resulted in the Statement being accurate and up to date.

A report considering the provisional General Fund (GF) and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) position in comparison to the budget was reported to Cabinet on 9 July 2019.

The narrative statement provided separately to the Statement of Accounts compared the final year end position against the original budget approved in February 2018 as per appendix B.

The Council’s actual borrowing was within the level of the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR).

The working balance on the HRA had increased from £1,667k at 1 April 2018 to £1,897k at 31 March 2019 due to an underspend within the HRA in 2018-19. No new borrowing had been taken out in the year.

Members were conscious that some planned maintenance work had not been completed, it was advised that the Fire Risk Assessment had taken priority but the planned maintenance projects had been pushed back to 2019/20 and a report would be available at the next Cabinet meeting showing a comprehensive view of all works.

Cllr Pritchett requested that although he would vote in favour of the Statement of Accounts, it be noted that he will not be in favour of Appendix B as it was not discussed and there are spelling mistakes in the document.

RESOLVED that

1)    The Committee APPROVED The Statement of Accounts for 2018-19.

2)    The Chair of the Audit and Standards Committee SIGNED the Statement of Accounts for 2018-19.