Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Head of Finance presented the Statement of Accounts report and summarised the main points. She referred Members of the Group to the narrative section of the report which detailed and summarised the key points.

The Head of Finance informed the Group that total funding for the council was covered by Council Tax, business rates and grants. She said that the general fund remained stable and that earmarked reserves had risen from £20.9m to £24.3m. She referred the Group to note 4 on page 13 which showed the total transfers to reserves, mainly related to topping up the climate change reserve and the creation of a simpler recycling reserve due to additional responsibilities for the Council arising from the Environment Act.

The Head of Finance said that the overall net increase included planned transfers to reserves, which included new homes bonus and underspends to the organization stabilization reserve. She confirmed that the Council’s overall net worth had increased and that investments held by the council at 31 March 2024 totalled circa £76m, which was a slight increase from the previous year.

The Head of Finance informed Members of the Group that capital expenditure totalled £7m and that the Council had no requirement to borrow externally. She noted that the collection fund was in surplus and that this would be redistributed in 2026/27.

In relation to major service developments and key achievements for the Council through the year, the Head of Finance referred Members of the Group to the narrative section of the report. In relation to the Climate Change Reserve, she referred Members of the Group to paragraph 4.8 which provided information about some of the projects that it had funded.

The Head of Finance concluded that the Council’s position remained stable, although challenges and risks still remained and were likely to continue with reviews of funding and the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

Councillor Thomas asked about risks to the Council’s reserves with LGR, including s106 and CIL funds and New Homes Bonus (NHB). The Head of Finance said that LGR was a complicated process and expected that this would be determined in the future. The Director for Finance and Corporate Services added that much of the NHB funding was earmarked for projects and thought that amounts would be small by the point of LGR. He said that the reserves from all councils coming together would be combined under the new authority and that detail about how this would be managed was to be confirmed.

The Chair asked about the increase in reserves for the financial year and the Head of Finance explained that the balance varied annually but that this year reflected the delay in business rates reform and consequently higher level of business rates and confirmed that the annual budget would be determined by Cabinet and Full Council.

Councillor Thomas asked about £25m Freeport seed funding for 25/26 and the Director for Finance and Corporate Services said that the seed capital was allocated for infrastructure projects to help facilitate the development of the site and was due to be spent within this financial year.

Councillor Thomas asked whether land had been purchased for carbon capture and the Head of Finance confirmed that this had been carried forward.

It is RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group:

a)             Approved the Statement of Accounts for 2024/25 (Appendix A) including the Annual Governance Statement at Section B page xxix

b)            Delegated authority to the Director of Finance and Corporate Services to make any changes necessary resulting from the matters outstanding on the accounts and advise both the Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group and Finance Portfolio Holder accordingly, such changes to be reported to the Governance Scrutiny Group.