There was no public participation on this occasion.

To consider the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 October 2018.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 October 2018 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

There were no declarations of interest in relation to items of business on the agenda.

Both agenda items 5 and 6 were taken together for deliberation.

Consideration was given to the annual report of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Performance and Governance Manager, and Chief Accountant (Agenda item 5).

To achieve effective governance, each local authority should be able to demonstrate that its governance structures complied with the core and sub principles contained within the Delivering Good Governance in Local Government Framework 2016. It should develop and maintain a local code of governance, and authorities should test their governance structure and partnerships against the Framework’s principles.

The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) explained how the Council complied with its code of corporate governance and met the requirements of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015. The Code of Corporate Governance and AGS 2017/18 were appended to the report for approval.  The Statement of Accounts had been completed in line with Council accounting policies and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Code of Practice. The full statements had been reviewed by EY with the report on their findings set out in Agenda item 6 – External Audit Results Report.

RESOLVED -

(1)         That the Annual Governance Statement 2017/18 be approved; and

(2)         That the Annual Statement of Accounts for 2017/18 be approved.

Both agenda items 5 and 6 were taken together for deliberation.

Consideration was given to the External Auditor’s (EY) results report for year ending 31 March 2018 (Agenda item 6).

Martin Young, Manager, and Paul King, Executive Director, EY, briefly guided Members through the very detailed report which was now complete. They were now expecting the receipt of the Annual Governance Statement and signed representations. It was noted that EY had received no objection to the 2017/18 accounts from members of the public, and anticipated that the complete sign off would be the following day. The audit certificate would be issued at the same time as the audit opinion.

In the Value for Money conclusion, EY stated that the Council currently had appropriate arrangements in place to deliver sustainable services over the period of its Medium Term Financial Plan. However, EY thought it important that the Council considered the revenue impact of the Horton Heath development; and to carefully consider the possible risks from unexpected interest rate rises, especially with regards to the uncertainty of withdrawing from the European Union.

Members were advised that there were two errors in the document:

·         Page 19 (page 165 of the full agenda), the penultimate sentence, be amended to reflect the highlighted text ‘……if such a challenge was successful, it would result in a corporation tax liability of approximately up to £1.5 million’; and

·         Page 35 (page 181 of the full agenda), second bullet point, be amended to reflect the highlighted text: ‘£3.911 million reclassification of share capital in Spurwing Developments Limited and Spurwing Ventures Limited from Property, Plant and Equipment to short term investments.’

Members asked for and received clarification from EY on several matters set out in the document, and further discussion took place around the possible risk of interest rate rises and the Council’s short and long term borrowing.

Going forward, it was advised that all EY’s recommendations in the report had been addressed, and in order to improve communications, there was to be a standard item on this Committee’s agenda entitled ‘External Audit Progress Update’.

The Chair, on behalf of councillors, gave thanks to all staff involved for their continued efforts in what was a stressful and difficult period in getting the accounts to close on time.

RESOLVED -

That the representation letter be signed by both the Chair of the Audit and Resources Committee, and the Chief Financial Officer.