Agenda item

Presentation by the Finance Team

The Director of Resources introduced the item by explaining to members that contrary to previous years the annual statement of accounts had not been printed for all members but instead made available on the website and in the members room, given the increasing size of the documentation.  Officers would make a PowerPoint presentation of particular highlights of the documentation.

Group Accountant, Martyn Scull, tabled amendments to pages 14, 21 and 92 of the statement of accounts.  The amendments to pages 21 and 92 were presentational only, there had been no changes to the figures simply how they had been presented following a suggestion by KPMG.  The amendment to page 14 had been a change to the capital expenditure which had previously not included the loan to the Airport.  This had since been added.  (Annex 1). 

Group Accountants, Sarah Didcote and Martyn Scull introduced the PowerPoint presentation (Annex 2) and talked through each slide. 

Officers provided the following responses to questions from members of the committee;

• There was a £30k limit for Disabled Facilities Grants and if Social Services were unable to provide top-up funding any shortfall could be met with a loan from the Council.  Limits differed for private properties and social housing and these loans were usually repaid on death or sale of the property.  Such loans were currently being treated as capital expenditure and when repaid as capital receipts.  Officers would look at whether these loans needed to be disclosed elsewhere in the accounts.
• The cost of any borrowing was passed on to those to whom we loaned monies, the Council was not making a loss and was prohibited by law to make a profit. 
• In terms of the subsidy buy-out the Government would continue to get 75% of any RTB monies, though there were a number of deductions that could be made (admin costs, etc).  There was a new piece of legislation that would relax the restrictions on any monies from the sale of surplus assets but the Council would need to prove any such monies were to be used for regeneration. 
• The decision to borrow £27.4m for the HRA self financing settlement was made by Council and was based on the business case which had been presented and showed that over a 30 year period it would be of significant benefit.
• The valuation of the Airport was based on the runway and buildings and the reduction in value was as a result of the declining property values since 2008.
• The Code had never previously required for heritage assets to be included, probably due to the difficulty around valuations.  There would be no cash loss if any pieces were claimed back though this would impact the Net assets.  The majority of pieces were donated a long, long time ago and some had been impossible to value.
• There were so many heritage assets that it would not be possible to value them all given the cost associated with such an undertaking.  With these assets there was the potential for valuations to change over time. 

Resolved

To approve the Statement of Accounts for 2011/12 including the Annual Governance Statement for 2011/12.

To authorise the chair of the Audit Committee to sign the Statement of Accounts in order to formally signify the Council’s approval of the accounts.