Agenda item

To present the unaudited Financial Statements including Narrative Report for the Committee’s review, in line with best practice (report of the Interim Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Interim Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) which presented the unaudited Financial Statements including Narrative Report for the Committee’s review, in line with best practice.

The Head of Finance Delivery – Technical and Corporate (PSPS) (formerly known as the Deputy Chief Finance Officer – Corporate (PSPS) as noted within the report) presented the report to members which included the following:

• Narrative Report;
• Statement of Responsibilities;
• Core Financial Statements:
  • Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement;
  • Movement in Reserves Statement;
  • Balance Sheet;
  • Cash Flow Statement;
  • Notes to the Accounts;
• Supplementary Financial Statements:
  • Housing Revenue Account Income and Expenditure Statement;
  • Movement on the Housing Revenue Account Statement;
  • Notes to the Housing Revenue Account Statement;
  • Collection Fund Statement;
  • Notes to the Collection Fund Statement;
  • Group Accounts; and
  • Glossary of terms.

The following points were highlighted:

• That the draft Financial Statements 2024/25 had been published on the deadline date of 30 June 2025 and external auditors had commenced their audit work on 7 July 2025;
• Paragraph 2.4 of the covering report highlighted the new accounting standard regarding leases. This standard would not impact the taxpayer and was purely presentational from an accounting perspective for the financial statements;
• The 2024/25 budget outturn provided a £317,000 surplus position. Full details of the variances were available in the 8 July 2025 Cabinet report; and
• The Financial Statements commenced at page 21 of the report.

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members referred to the ‘Debt Impairment’ narrative on Note 4 of the Notes to the Accounts and queried if the £1.705m Housing Benefit overpayment was deemed to be tolerated or could it be minimised.
  • The Head of Finance Delivery – Technical and Corporate (PSPS) responded that:
    • Following the CIPFA Code of Practice, and as outlined in Note 4, the Council was required to state the impact upon provision should debt collection rates deteriorate and as such, the amount stated represented the volume being pursued as opposed to written off; and
    • Debt was closely monitored on a quarterly basis.
  • The Interim Director of Finance (S151) added that such debt was pursued rigorously over several years with write off only undertaken where repayment was deemed not possible due to circumstances such as death, bankruptcy or abscondence.

• Members referred to ‘Impairment Allowance – Bad Debt provision’ on page 12 of the report and queried the £85000 outturn against a revised budget of £13000.
  • The Head of Finance Delivery – Technical and Corporate (PSPS) responded that:
    • Cabinet had approved the referenced write off value in November 2024, of which £135000 related to sundry debts and £12000 for housing benefit overpayments;
    • The value was represented on the Balance Sheet as ‘bad debt provision’ and thereby reduced the level of the provision; and
    • Following this, an assessment of debts owed to the Council was undertaken as of 31 March 2025 which ascertained the required provision at year end and resulted in a higher required contribution to the bad debt provision from revenue, owing to the write offs.

• Members referred to the Capital Financial Performance on page 13 of the report and queried the £817000 underspend for Disabled Facilities Grants.
  • The Head of Finance Delivery – Technical and Corporate (PSPS) responded that spend was demand-driven and as such, the grant received was greater than demand/ applications. Unspent grant funding was set aside and could be utilised in future years.

AGREED:

That following a review by the Governance and Audit Committee, the unaudited Financial Statements 2024/25 at Appendix 1 be noted.