This report updates the Committee and reports that the draft 2025/26 Statement of Account has been published on the Council’s website by the statutory deadline of 30 June 2026, the formal public inspection period will run from 1 July – 11 August 2026 and the Government has set a backstop date of 31 January 2027 for the external audit opinion to be issued on the 2025/26 Statement of Accounts.

The Committee received a report on the unaudited draft 2025/26 Statement of Accounts for Reading Borough Council, and the Reading Borough Council Group which included its subsidiaries Brighter Futures for Children (which ceased trading on 30 September 2025), Reading Transport Limited and Homes for Reading, which had been published on the Council’s website by the statutory deadline of 30 June 2026, and was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  The formal public inspection period was from 1 July to 11 August 2026.

The report also outlined the timing of the external audit scrutiny of the accounts.  It stated that the Government had set a backstop date of 31 January 2027 for the external audit opinion to be issued on the 2025/26 Statement of Accounts.

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.