Agenda item

This report updates the Committee on the Council’s Draft Statement of Accounts 2023/24.

Mr Kaycee Ikegwu, Head of Finance (Housing) and Chief Accountant, introduced the report.  Mr Tim Cutler, KPMG, was asked a query regarding how well the Council was doing or if other approaches needed to be sought and regarding the reduction of balances by £30 million. In response, the meeting heard that it would be premature for KPMG to offer assurance or nervousness about the process about to be conducted. KPMG had been met with positive engagement from the Council. Originally there was a nervousness upon the appointment that the Council would be very risk averse in how the Council interacted with KPMG and how the Council shared information, but the Council had engaged well. A document producing a set of accounts covering the operations as large and diverse as Haringey was a fair achievement.

The meeting heard:

·      Regarding the use of balances in the overspend position, page 60 of the agenda papers summarised the draw down from reserves that the Council had to make at the end of 2023/24 (£19.2 million). This was not where the Council wanted to be and it was aware of what was driving the drawdown, such as social care cost and temporary accommodation cost. It was not ideal for the Council to be in such a position as levels of reserves were not excessively high especially when compared with other authorities. The Council would like to, in the next few years, rebuild the reserves. This was important due to the uncertainty over the next few years and it was important to be in a position where reserves were adequate for unexpected events should they arise. Work was underway on next year's budget. Some of this work being done was looking at what was driving the overspend and its impact on the current and future years.

·      In terms of Haringey reserves, compared to other Councils that issued Section 114 notices, the benchmarking information published by certain government departments would be useful in assessing this. For boroughs that had issued Section 114 notices the level of reserves would not be the only reason why and therefore it was important that a direct correlation not be assumed between one and the other.

·      The Committee was considering the Draft Statement of Accounts. The outturn report had been considered by Cabinet in the prior week and would be considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. This was a more detailed outline of what drove the overspend. Members would be encouraged to read the narratives to the statement of accounts and the outturn report because the context was better set in these documents than the Statement of Accounts. It was important to see if the reasons for the overspend impacted on 2024/25 and its impact on future years and what actions could be taken if needed. 

·      The work that was underway examining next year's budget and future budgets involved looking at internal processes and services subject to increased demand especially social care and temporary accommodation. The Council was looking internally to make sure that it had its processes right. It was also important to be honest about what some of the demand pressures were. It was important that the Council used all the data and insight that it had to get the budget in the right position to avoid any significant overspend.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee note the contents of the report and the appended Draft Statement of Accounts.