19.1           The report of the Finance and Asset Management Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 49-164, set out the Statement of Accounts for 2013/14. Members were asked to consider and approve the Statement of Accounts as attached at Appendix 1 to the report.

19.2           The Finance Manager explained that the Statement of Accounts was a statutory document which was produced to demonstrate the Council’s financial position at the end of the financial year. In line with the revised Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011 guidelines, approval of the accounts was now made by the Section 151 Officer by 30 June then the accounts were audited and amended, if necessary, by 30 September before the Section 151 Officer signed the accounts again. Those accounts were then approved by the Audit Committee and the Chairman would sign them as well. The accounts were prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom 2013/14 and this year there were two main changes to the Code: extensive revisions to IAS 19 classification, recognition, measurement and disclosure - this had no impact on the balance sheet figure; and a change in the way business rates income was accounted for. As a consequence of the audit, a small number of changes had been made to the Statement of Accounts and those had been agreed with the Auditors.

19.3           Attention was drawn to an error at Paragraph 2.1 of the report, Income and Expenditure, and Members noted that, despite the sentence contained within the report, there had not been a decrease in working balances arising from variances. The headline issues were set out within the report and included a number of overspends including the savings plan not being met; the Bellwin Scheme threshold; and benefits take-up. There were also underspends including additional income from planning and land charges; staff savings against vacant posts; and business rates retained income. In respect of the balance sheet, the total net worth of the Council had decreased by £778,000 in the year from £6.9 million to £6.1 million. The decrease in net worth was summarised in the Movement in Reserves Statement and there were a number of movements which had contributed to that including: an increase of £2 million in Earmarked Reserves; a decrease of £812,000 in the capital receipts reserve and a decrease of £1.2 million in the pensions reserve. In terms of Council Tax Fund Collection Balances, £660,000 had been committed in 2014/15 for a reduction in Council Tax levels and, in respect of capital balances, the unallocated budget for new capital projects was £1,979,060. The main expenditure on capital in-year had been Disabled Facilities Grants, Property, Plant and Equipment; and IT software. The Annual Governance Statement had been approved by the Audit Committee at its meeting on 25 June 2014 with no changes being required. It had subsequently been signed off by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive and was therefore not re-presented to support the Statement of Accounts.

19.4           In respect of the savings from vacant posts, a Member questioned whether the posts had now been filled or whether they were likely to continue making savings. She also queried why the revenue budget support had not been required. In response, the Finance Manager explained that staff were starting to be recruited now so savings on vacant posts were unlikely to continue at such a high level in future years. In terms of the revenue budget support, this was a one-off sum from reserves which it had been intended would be used for one year to support the budget. This had not been needed in the end which was good news.

19.5           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the Statement of Accounts 2013/14 be APPROVED.