Issue - meetings

The 2018/19 unaudited statement of accounts was presented for scrutiny, ahead of the final version that would be produced for the July meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee.

The following points were highlighted:

·         The finance team were visited by auditors on 20 May, and no issues were raised as a result of this visit;

·         External auditors were finalising the accounts, with no significant issues at this point.  Final sign off would be 23 July;

·         A healthy balance sheet had been achieved, with around £23 million available for investment;

·         In the future, the Fairer Funding review, the financial settlement and changes to the business rates scheme were potential issues for the Authority.  The Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) was prudent, in that there were adequate reserves to act as a buffer for a number of years.  The General Fund balance stood at £2 million;

·         The Fairer Funding scheme would look at resourcing need, by looking at factors such as deprivation and service need.  It would not be dependent on the amount of reserves a Council had;

·         The resilience indicators within the report reflected a generally worsening picture for the next four years; however this was still a strong overall position.

RESOLVED to note the report.