Purpose

Due to nationwide delays in the External Auditing of Local Government accounts resulting largely from resource issues in the External Audit sector, the Government has taken the decision that any accounts relating to the years to 2022-23 inclusive that are not signed off by External Auditors by 13th December 2024 will fall in the ‘Backstop date’.
Failure to meet the 13th December 2024 deadline will mean accounts are published with a disclaimer or 'modified' opinion.
Although Bradfords accounts have been signed off, some other members of the LCR pool are likely to be affected.
Unless the governance of the LCR pools for the relevant years are not amended, then the Leeds City Council s151 will not have the authorisation to distribute pool surpluses from those years.
The s151 from Leeds requires authorisation from the LCR pool members prior to the 13th December 2024.

Decision

To change the Governance of the Leeds City Region Business Rates pool for 2022-23 and affected prior years to allow the s151 of Leeds City Council to distribute LCR Business Rates surpluses to LCR Pool Members on the authorisation of the LCR Pool Members s151s rather than after the accounts of all LCR Pool Members have been signed off by External Auditors.

Alternative options considered

no viable alternatives