Our Financial Health – Financial Statements – Summary of Accounts

What are Accounts and why do we produce them?

Large organisations like companies or Councils have to keep a written record of their income and expenditure. We also have to publish these records. Councils must tell the taxpayers in their area where their money came from, what they did with it, what they own and what they owe.

Each year the Council has to produce a set of accounts just like any other organisation. These have to comply with strict accounting rules (Financial Reporting Standards) and Standards (Statements of Recommended Practice).

The government also requires the Council to comply with the Accounts and Audit Regulations.

Our Statement of Accounts for 2007/08 has to be completed and approved by the Council before 30th June 2008 . The Accounts are audited by Grant Thornton LLP independent external Auditors.

What is in this summary of accounts?

This section gives a summary of the Statement of Accounts (Full version) which is a snapshot of the finances as at 31st March 2008; showing;-

• How much money we have at 31st March 2008 (reserves)
• How the money is invested at 31 March 2008 (buildings, equipment and cash)
• How we raised income during the year
• How we spent money during the year
• How we performed against our budget
• How we performed in looking after the money

How do we plan our finances and budgets?

Worcester City Council’s finances are at the heart of what we do; where the money comes from and where it is spent affects us all and the services provided by the Council. But we may not always understand the financial terms and budget information that we hear about. The funding of local authorities can be a complex and confusing area so we have produced this section of the report, which aims to jargon bust the accounts, explain some of the financial terminology and offer a simple and clear guide on how financial decisions are reached.

What do we do with taxpayer’s money?

Our financial resources help us in achieving our aims as a council. These aims are :

• Cleaner and Greener City
• Safer and Stronger Communities
• Urban Renaissance
• Customer Care and Citizen Engagement
• Performance, Innovation and Efficiency

We have to decide what services we can provide to meet the needs of the city whilst balancing the budget. We do this by using both our regular income (for recurring costs like employee salaries) and our reserves (for one-off initiatives).

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