08 Aug 2025
Financial experts are invited to take a deep-dive into the district council’s accounts.
SADC’s unaudited draft accounts for the year ending March 31 have been published on its website, and public inspection is open until September 17.
Council leader Cllr Paul de Kort explained: “Auditing for the accounting periods since covid were much delayed, both for us and dozens of other local authorities across the country, for well documented reasons outside of our control. As a council we have been determined to get back to timely reporting and we are on track for our 2024/25 accounts to be audited before the backstop date in February, thanks to the hard work of our team.”
He has highlighted several items worthy of attention.
“The first is that, as a result of careful budget management during the year, we were able to replenish the council’s reserves slightly for both the General Fund (by £0.4m) and the Housing Revenue Account (the ring-fenced account for housing services, where £5m has been added to the reserves for use in future years). This is important as this council has particularly low reserves, and as people will understand from their own finances, having some savings provides a safety net to deal with uncertainty and unpredictability. We only have to look at the huge amount required by councils to fund the surge in the need for temporary housing at the moment to understand why this is so necessary.
“The second point relates to valuations, which are an annual accounting requirement to show a point in time assessment of the value of our land and buildings.
“Valuations fluctuate year on year, with some gaining and some losing value according to the market. When valuations decrease this is often a sign that the economy is weaker, rather than something in our direct control. That has had the effect in our accounts of placing our Jubilee Square development in the red at this point in time.
“The reality is that Jubilee Square came in on budget and is providing much needed social and affordable housing and high-quality commercial space in the district, breathing new life into a formerly run-down area of the city centre.
“The commercial space is filling up with our latest partner, Co-Space, opening for business this autumn. Co-Space’s site encompasses 28,000 square feet of flexible workspace including office, co-working, and meeting space based in Eleanor Ormerod House.
“The third area to highlight is the very high tax collection rates the council achieved during the year. The council’s Council Tax collection rate for 2024/2025 was 98.80 per cent, which was the highest in Hertfordshire by a significant margin and the 11th highest in the country overall (out of 295 local authorities).
“Our business rate collection rate was 98.59 per cent, which was the second highest in Hertfordshire and 63rd highest nationally. I would like to thank local residents and businesses for making that possible during what we know has been a difficult year for many people.”
Final accounts will be published following externatl before the Government’s ‘backstop’ date of February 27 2026, with SADC’s audit and governance committee also scrutinising the accounts before they are finalised.
To find out more about publicly inspecting the accounts, visit https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/accounts-budgeting-and-spending and https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Public%20Inspection%20Notice%202024-25.pdf.
