Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts for 2014/2015, as set out in Supplementary Agenda No.1. The Council is required to produce an annual Statement of Accounts that was subject to scrutiny by the external auditors.  The auditor would subsequently give an opinion on the accounts, and additionally interested parties would have the right to inspect the accounts and make representations to the auditor.

The Cabinet agreed to consider this as an urgent report as the draft accounts were certified by the Chief Finance Officer on 30 June 2015, in accordance with the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2011 (as amended), and it was good practice to present the accounts to Members as soon as possible after 30 June; prior to the audit and ahead of the submission of the audited accounts in September 2015 and the statutory publication date of 30 September 2015.

It was reported that the revenue account showed a revenue surplus of £388,000. It was noted that the final position was a significant achievement and a reflection both of the successful efforts to maintain services at minimum cost and the robustness of the budgets that were originally set. Details of the more significant variations to agreed budgets were set out.

The final Housing Revenue Account for 2014/2015 showed a surplus of £1.561 million against a budgeted surplus of £821,000. Having taken account of the 2014/2015 surplus the Housing Revenue Account balance stood at £2.235m as at 31 March 2015.

The final capital expenditure for 2014/2015 was £41.1 million with £9 million profiled to future years. The report provided an analysis of spend across directorates, together with details of sources of funding and major achievements during the year.

It was noted that the Audit Committee would consider the draft Statement of Accounts on 14 July 2015.

Reasons:

Good practice recommends that Members approve the Statement of Accounts as soon after 30 June as practicable.