Agenda item

To inform the Audit Committee on the production of the Annual Accounts and their External Audit and deal with issues arising from this work.

Recommended – That the Committee note the audit findings report which is found separately on the agenda.

-      That the Committee delegate approval to the Chair of Audit Committee to sign the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2020/21 (Appendix A) following completion of external audit work.

-      That the Committee delegate approval to the Chair of the Audit Committee to approve and sign the letter of representation in Appendix B.

The Head of Accountancy presented the report to inform the Audit Committee on the production of the Annual Accounts and their External Audit and to discuss any issues arising from the work.

The key achievements for 2020/21 were discussed and set out below:

·       Secured £2 million external funding for the Decarbonisation Scheme.

·       Achieved One Carbon World Neutral Gold Standard by reducing its carbon footprint.

·       £492,000 Community Champions award (highest amount across Lancashire).

·       Queen Awards for Voluntary Services in Hyndburn with Maundy Relief and Community Solutions;

·       Business Compliance promoting good practice amongst premises, preventing outbreaks from premises and require high standards of control measures, and protect public from unacceptable risks through strong enforcement.

·       Providing Working from Home opportunities to employees.

·       Online Council meeting transition despite obstacles.

·       7,733 tonnes of dry waste recycled (increase of 23% compared to previous year).

·       100% of playground inspections were completed each week.

·       Revenue teams were very busy throughout pandemic supporting our businesses, designing and delivering new Covid-19 related grants to businesses and were nationally recognised at press conference from Downing Street for their excellent performance.

·       93.34% of Council Tax Collection with 89.3% of NNDR Collection.

·       68.5% Direct Debit take up for Council Tax.

·       66,861 (65% increase) of email enquiries to the CCC.

·       Increase take up of e-services for revenues and benefits services for Council Tax from 27% to 40%; and Business Rates 29% to 40%.

·       On-line applications for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support from 45% to 50% and Change of Circumstances to 10%.

·       Licensing team updated their procedures so that all taxi and private hire applications can be completed online.

·       CVMU created a new taxi driver non-contact waiting areas to ensure taxi testing follows a socially distanced system.

·       Taxi screens offered to taxi’s these offer protection against the virus as well as a really effective and simple way for us to promote key messages.

·       Supporting contact tracing and vaccination update.

·       Helped clinically extremely vulnerable residents to stay safe at home by establishing an operational Covid hub in a week, providing thousands of meals, shopping services and medicine collections.

·       Supported local businesses with over £30m in urgent grants by being the fastest district authority nationally for the provision of initial critical financial aid.

·       Reduced the number of households living in cold homes due to winter fuel poverty by providing support for fuel payments as well as essential household goods to keep families and individuals warm.

·       Reduced food insecurity for hundreds of households by establishing a food solutions network, distributing funding to local food banks and began exploring contemporary food insecurity policies with the aim of reducing food insecurity in Hyndburn in the longer term.

·       Alleviated loneliness and isolation felt by our vulnerable residents by making hundreds of out-bound calls including over the Christmas period to check in a chat and ensure that no one was hungry, cold or lonely.

·       Help set up the Hyndburn Community Champions Network which meets every fortnight, it includes 90 people, representing 51 groups and organisations.

·       The Hyndburn Hub is a finalist in the Hyndburn Business Awards for the Pride of Hyndburn category.

The Financial position and performances measures were discussed along with the key growth projects.

The draft accounts were completed and published on the Council’s website in July 2020. Subsequently, Mazars, our external auditors, have undertaken their onsite audit of the accounts and work is close to completion.

Thanks to all staff in the Council for their performance and contribution on this piece of work was noted to the Committee.

Councillor Aziz proposed the committee to wait until the accounts had been completed and set up another committee to sign these off in the future. The Committee then had a vote on this proposal but the majority was against it.

Resolved – (1) That the Audit findings report be noted by the Audit    Committee.

(2) That the Audit Committee delegated approval to the Chair of the Audit Committee to sign the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2020/21 following completion of the external audit work.

(3) That the Audit Committee delegated approval to the Chair of the Audit Committee to approve and sign the letter of representation.