Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Director of Finance, Assets and Resources presenting the annual report and accounts.

The Committee had before it the draft Annual Report and Accounts * for 2016/17.

The Director of Finance, Assets and Resources stated that as was the case last year, the draft accounts had been completed a month ahead of the statutory deadline. This had been a challenging timescale but had been achieved due to the hard work and dedication of his accountancy team.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the following within the report:

·         The balances held as at 31 March 2017 and shown in section 2.3. A surplus of £30k had been achieved on the General Fund for the year and was testament to the proactive work undertaken by managers to bring figures in on budget. The Housing Revenue surplus had been transferred to the modernisation reserve which would allow the Council to spend more money on its existing housing stock. Successful cash collection, for example, in the area of housing rents, had been a chief factor in providing this positive outcome for the year.

·         Financial monitoring and the reporting of this through the committee structure had been very accurate throughout the year.

·         Since the agenda for the meeting had been published there had been further adjustments to the draft accounts and an Addendum document was tabled listing these minor ‘cosmetic’ adjustments.

·         Movement in Reserves Statement – this showed that the General Fund balance and the amount held for Revenue purposes was £2,241k.

·         The Committee compared service areas in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement in terms of comparing figures from 2015/16 to 2016/17. In the area of Human Resources there had been a significant increase in expenditure during 2016/17. It was explained that this was due to job evaluations and corporate training to equip the workforce with the skills that they needed despite lower numbers of staff. The area of Planning and Regeneration was also discussed in terms of it being impossible to predict the number of planning applications that would be received during a financial year or how many Section 106 contributions would be received.

·         The deficit on the Pension Fund had increased significantly, however, this was reflected nationally.

·         The Balance Sheet showed that there had been an increase in the valuation of the housing stock and overall the Balance Sheet was showing an improvement of £10m compared to the previous year.

·         Transfers to and from the earmarked reserves were summarised.

·         It was AGREED that the Director of Finance, Assets and Resources would circulate by email details in relation to the amount specified for the Air Quality Fund in Crediton.

The Committee thanked the Director of Finance, Assets and Resources and his team for the timely production of the draft accounts and for their contributions in bringing the Council in on budget in what were challenging financial times.

RESOLVED that the draft Annual Report and Accounts and Addendum document for 2016/17 be approved.

(Proposed by the Chairman)

Note: * Report previously circulated, copy attached to the signed minutes.