Agenda item

To provide the Committee with an update on the progress made on the 2024-25 Statement of Accounts.

Ravindar Jassar (Deputy Director Corporate and Financial Planning) introduced a report from the Corporate Director Finance & Resources providing an update on the Statement of Accounts for 2024-25 report.

In presenting the update members were reminded that the Committee had received an update on the preparation of the 2024-25 Statement of Accounts in March 2025 with the following identified as the main significant issues likely to impact on completion of the accounts:

• the implementation of lessons learned from the 2023-24 accounts in relation to the accounting for assets and valuations; and

• the adoption of IFRS 16, where the new standard required changes for most leases to be recognised on the balance sheet impacting both assets and liabilities.

In relation to assets and valuations, members were advised this had been a significant concern for the 2023-24 audit which had caused delay in sign off the accounts.  As part of the preparation for the 2024-25 accounts, a number of cross council working groups had therefore been established in order to address the issues raised, ensure services held accurate information on the assets they were responsible for to enable accurate valuations, and ensure the asset register reconciled to these valuations with over 15,000 assets having been identified across property, housing and regeneration.  The Committee was advised that whilst resource had been dedicated to support this project, it had also created additional work from a finance and service perspective which had led to some delays in validating all of the data required to ensure accurate valuations.  The Committee were advised that whilst significant progress has been made, further refinements and developments were expected to continue beyond year-end as Council-wide processes become more robust and consistently applied creating a risk that some residual issues may arise as part of ongoing efforts to ensure consistent practices and high-quality data across services.

In addition, the adoption of IFRS 16 had also represented a significant change for the 2024-25 financial statements with the key issues noted within the report.  As with assets and valuations, a dedicated resource had been provided to support the project, working with legal and relevant service areas to undertake the necessary reviews to support publication of the accounts.

Members were advised that to date, two review meetings had been held between Grant Thornton and the finance team with the External Auditors having expressed satisfaction with the progress being made although the scale and complexity of the work being undertaken had been recognised as creating some delay in validating the data required by valuers and in processing the necessary accounting adjustments to the financial statements, which it was noted remained a substantial undertaking.

As a result of the work and delays identified and in recognising the importance in undertaking a comprehensive review of the accounts before they were published, the Committee was advised that it was proposed to delay publication of the accounts by three weeks, from 30 June 2025 to 18 July 2025.

The Committee was assured that discussions had been undertaken with Grant Thornton in relation to the revised publication date with a plan also in place to audit those sections of the accounts that had been completed and were ready for audit in order to limit the impact on the overall audit timetable, with a further update to be provided for the Committee at its July 2025 meeting.

In commending the close work between the Council’s finance team and External Audit, members noted the amended key dates for the production of the accounts for 2024-25, as set out set out in section 3.11 of the report along with the need identified to publish a notice and inform the Secretary of State outlining the reasons, should the deadline for publication of their accounts be missed.  Members were advised that the approach outlined in terms of the delay in publication of the accounts had been endorsed by Grant Thornton with confirmation provided by Sophia Brown of the work already underway in terms of the fieldwork to support the audit process and of the close engagement with the Council’s finance team to ensure the necessary quality assurance checks were in place to support the provision of as complete and accurate a statement of accounts as possible.

As final consideration, members were advised that publication of the Annual Governance Statement and Narrative Report would also need to be coordinated alongside publication of the Council’s draft unaudited financial statements in order to ensure the requirements in relation to their inspection were complied with.

In support of the approach outlined within the report, the Committee RESOLVED to note the delay in publication of the Statement of Accounts for 2024/25.