New auditors to scrutinise Blackpool Council's accounts

Blackpool Council has new auditors in place whose role will be to scrutinise the authority's spending and assets over the year.

By Shelagh Parkinson

Published 13th Mar 2019, 11:01 BST

Updated 13th Mar 2019, 12:08 BST

A new auditor is in place to oversee town hall spending

Previous auditor KPMG has stepped down from the role with responsibility now handed over to Deloitte.

Representatives of the new company attended the latest meeting of the council's audit committee.

They said they were confident this year's annual accounts would be submitted in time for the July 31 deadline, after last year's figures were not signed off until five weeks after the cut off time.

It was believed to be the first time in Blackpool Council's history its accounts had been late.

Among the issues which Deloitte will be monitoring are financial sustainability with forecast overspending of £3.8m on the current budget, and property valuations with the council having assets totaling £381m at the end of March last year.

Last year's delay in signing the accounts off was due to pension liabilities and the auditor had asked for some figures to be recalculated.