This report updates the Committee that the draft 2024/25 Statement of Accounts has been published on the Council’s website by the statutory deadline of 30 June, the formal public inspection period is scheduled to commence in early July and it outlines the timing of the external audit scrutiny.

The Committee received a report on the unaudited draft 2024/25 Statement of Accounts for Reading Borough Council, and the Reading Borough Council Group which included its subsidiaries Brighter Futures for Children, Reading Transport Limited and Homes for Reading, which had been published on the Council’s website by the statutory deadline of 30 June 2025, and was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  It stated that this was the first time the Council had met this requirement for nearly a decade, and it represented the passing of a significant milestone as the Council sought to play its part in the national recovery programme for external audit opinions.

It was reported at the meeting that the formal public inspection period was from 9 July to 19 August 2025.

The report also outlined the timing of the external audit scrutiny of the accounts, with the aim of reporting to the next Committee in September 2025 a substantially completed process.  It stated that the Government had set a backstop date of 27 February 2026 for the external audit opinion to be issued.

Resolved:    

(1)       That the unaudited draft 2024/25 Statement of Accounts be noted;

(2)       That the Committee’s thanks to the finance team for the hard work done to enable the Statement of Accounts to be published by the statutory deadline be recorded.