Issue - items at meetings - Statement of Accounts 2010/11

Report of the Director of Finance (copy to follow).

RESOLVED- That the Audit Committee note the Statement of Accounts for 2010/11 and note that these are subject to audit.

10.1     The Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance that presented the unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2010/11. In previous years the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 legislation required the Statement of Accounts to be approved by Members by 30 June each year. Revisions to the regulations which came into force on 31 March 2011 meant that from 2010/11 onward, the unaudited Statement of Accounts were to be approved by the Chief Finance Officer by 30 June and the audited Statement of Accounts approved by Members by 30 September.

10.2     The Director of Finance supplemented that the change to the regulations reflected the challenges to Members in approving a Statement of Accounts that have yet to go through the audit process.

10.3     Councillor Follett enquired if there would be a significant impact from the net pension liability increasing as detailed in page seventy of the accounts.

10.4     The Director of Finance answered that the figure used for this item in the accounts was a ‘snapshot’ reflecting the financial market at the time. This figure would change daily in relation to stock market performance. Whilst the figure did show how well funded the pension scheme was, it had no impact upon council tax payers or the local authority. Liability could be properly assessed when the local authority were asked to produce an actuary figure. At this point, the authority may need to increase the pension contribution and incorporate this into its budget. The Director of Finance added that several factors, including increasing life expectancy, was causing a strain upon the pension fund.

10.5     Councillor Summers asked for further information on the increase in Right to Buy sales of Houses and Flats for 2010/11.

10.6     The Director of Finance noted this represented only a very small rise in the number of properties sold from ten during 2009/10 to sixteen in 2010/11. For information, she informed Members that seventy-five per cent of income from Right to Buy sales was retained by central government with twenty-five per-cent going to the local authority.

10.7     RESOLVED- That the Audit Committee note the Statement of Accounts for 2010/11 and note that these are subject to audit.