Report of: the Head of Financial Services

Purpose of report:

To set the “Council Tax Base” for 2021-22 as required by section 33 of The Local Government Finance Act 1992 and the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (England) Regulations 2012.

Recommendations:

The Committee is recommended to agree

1.               that the 2021/22 Council Tax Base for the City Council’s area as a whole is set at 45,705.6 (as shown in Appendix 1)

2.               that the projected level of collection is set at 98%

3.               that the tax bases for the Parishes, and for the Unparished Area of the City (as shown in Appendix 2) be set as follows:

Unparished Area of the City                  38,124.7

Littlemore Parish                                  1,827.1

Old Marston Parish                              1,278.3

Risinghurst & Sandhills Parish               1,550.7

Blackbird Leys Parish                           2,924.8

City Council Total                                 45,705.6

Report of: the Head of Financial Services

Purpose of report:

To report upon progress on the external audit review of the Housing Benefit Subsidy claim on 2019-2020.

Recommendation:

The Committee is recommended to note

·       KPMG are the new auditors for the Housing Benefit external audit process;

·       the outcome of the Audit Report to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for 2019-20.

Report of: the internal auditor BDO.

Purpose of report: to inform the Committee on progress against the 2020/21 audit plan; the assessments of systems reviewed in this quarter; and the Local Government Sector update.

Recommendation: to discuss and note the report.

Report of: the Internal Auditor BDO

Purpose of report: to inform the Committee on progress on those recommendations raised by Internal Audit which are due for implementation.

Recommendation: to discuss and note the report.

Report of: the Head of Financial Services

Purpose of report:

To provide a summary of the findings of the Redmond Review into Local Audit and Local Authority Financial Reporting.

Recommendations:

1.     That the Committee consider implementation of the following recommendations from the report:

a)    Require the external auditor to present their annual report to Council

b)    Support an annual meeting of statutory officers with the key audit partner

c)     Support the addition of an independent audit committee member to the audit committee

2.     Note the Report including the comments and the summary of the response from MHCLG

Report of: the Head of Financial Services

Purpose of report:

To update the Committee on both corporate and service risks as at 30 November 2020.

Recommendations:

That the Committee reviews the risk management report and notes its contents.

To approve as a true and accurate record the minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2020.

The Committee is scheduled to meet at 6.00pm on the following dates:

22 April 2021

29 July 2021

Meetings will be on Zoom.