FOLLOWING the damning insight into the state of Warrington Borough Council’s finances, the Council is continuing to work through a significant backlog of unaudited annual accounts, with six financial years still awaiting final external sign-off as the authority seeks to restore confidence in its finances.
While the council has now published its draft Statement of Accounts for 2024/25, they have yet to undergo external audit and receive a final opinion. The publication marks another step forward, but it also highlights the scale of the challenge still facing the authority as it works through years of outstanding audits.
According to council budget papers and its Improvement and Recovery Plan, Warrington is carrying six years of unaudited accounts stretching back to 2019/20.
The position is broadly understood to be:
• 2019/20 – Accounts published but awaiting final audit opinion.
• 2020/21 – Accounts published but still outstanding.
• 2021/22 – Awaiting completion of the external audit.
• 2022/23 – Published but not yet signed off.
• 2023/24 – Awaiting completion of the audit process.
• 2024/25 – Draft accounts published and currently awaiting external audit.
The backlog is not unique to Warrington. Local authorities across England have faced severe delays following the well-publicised problems affecting the local government audit system, with shortages of qualified auditors creating a national backlog.
However, Warrington’s position has attracted particular attention because of the council’s extensive commercial investment programme, its complex borrowing arrangements and the financial challenges that led to Government intervention following last year’s Best Value Inspection.
The authority is now operating under an Improvement and Recovery Plan overseen by Ministerial Envoys and continues to work towards restoring financial resilience.
The council’s latest financial documents identify clearing the historic audit backlog as an important milestone in demonstrating improved governance and financial management.
Final audit opinions provide independent assurance that a council’s accounts present a true and fair view of its financial position. Until those opinions are issued, there remains a degree of uncertainty over historic financial reporting, although this does not necessarily mean there are inaccuracies within the accounts themselves.
As part of a national programme to tackle the audit crisis, external auditors have been given powers to use so-called “backstop” arrangements to clear historic accounts where full audits cannot reasonably be completed. In some cases this may result in qualified opinions or disclaimers, allowing authorities to move forward and return to the statutory audit timetable.
For Warrington, successfully clearing the backlog will be viewed as another important step alongside reducing borrowing, strengthening governance and implementing the recommendations made following the Government’s intervention.
With borrowing still standing at around £1.4 billion and a substantial financial recovery programme under way, bringing the council’s accounts fully up to date will be a key indicator of progress for residents, Government and investors alike.
The council’s external auditor, Grant Thornton, is continuing to work with the authority as part of the national programme aimed at restoring timely local authority audits across England.
Yesterday, Warrington Worldwide highlighted the state of the council’s finances ahead of a report to the Scrutiny Committee, tomorrow, Wednesday.
Warrington Worldwide has been attempting to arrange meetings with Chief Executive Sarah Smith since her appointment earlier this year and Government envoys, without success.
We have been told the envoys are only answerable to the Government minister responsible for their appointment.
Chief Executive Sarah Smith
