Agenda item - External Audit Progress Report January 2019

External Report from Grant Thornton

            Ward Affected:          All Wards

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the report.

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46.1       The Chair welcomed Darren Wells from Grant Thornton to introduce their first progress report.  Mr Wells gave a brief summary of the report and stated that their purpose was to set up a timeline and summarise the council’s current audit position, so that Grant Wells could become fully conversant with the Council and its financial environment.  He confirmed that the outcome of the current risk assessment work would be brought to the next March 2019 meeting.

46.2       In answer to the Chair’s query on which wider items applied to Brighton & Hove so far, Mr Wells replied that one issue was financial sustainability and that they were planning to introduce a financial resilience index since 15% of local authorities were currently moving towards a tipping point which was a cause for concern.

46.3       The Executive Director, Finance & Resources stated that he felt the report was a useful source of information and a good summary of how the council could progress in a unified way and he suggested that this report should be forwarded to all councillors.  It was confirmed as an action that this should be circulated to all councillors and added to the Action Log.

46.4    RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the report.