SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTS 2013/14
Council housing
Questions and answers
The council performs the role of
landlord for a number of the borough’s
residents and owns 12,957 properties
for which it charges rent. It is a legal
requirement that this expenditure and
income relating to council houses is
accounted for separately. During the
year, expenditure exceeded income by
£1.423million because of money being
set aside for the development of key
initiatives and developments. There are
available general reserves of £4.7million
at the end of the year. The majority of
this balance will be used to improve
existing properties and build new ones.
The costs and income associated with
council housing are shown below.
Q How does the council monitor
its budgets?
In February 2013 the full council set the
budget for the financial year from April
2013 to March 2014. Each month every
service has to report on how much has
been spent compared to the budget
they have been allocated and produce a
forecast of how much more they expect
to spend before the end of the financial
year. If it is likely to overspend against
its budget it must identify the steps they
will take to counteract this. The council
has delivered an underspend of £25,000
against the budget in 2013/14.
Q Why does the council
borrow money?
Year 2013/14
£000
Income
Council house rents
(62,085)
Other income
(6,738)
Total income
(68,823)
Expenditure
Repair and maintenance
12,878
Management and
supervision
20,048
Interest and capital costs
25,252
Other costs
7,568
Transfer to reserve for
future capital project
4,500
Total expenditure
70,246
Deficit for the year
1,423
The council owned the following
types and numbers of properties at
31 March 2014
Houses
2,903
Flats
9,938
Temp accommodation units
Total
116
12,957
The council borrows money to fund some
of its capital expenditure, such as new
school buildings and other major building
works. The cost of these projects is too
much for the council to pay out all at
once, so we borrow the money instead,
in a similar way to people taking out a
mortgage to buy their house. Nearly
all the money is borrowed from the
government and the council is bound by
legislation as to the amount it can borrow.
Q What happens to the rents paid
by council tenants?
Rents are used to fund repairs and
maintenance of the council’s houses and
to pay interest on the money borrowed
to build council houses and make major
improvements to them. Housing income
is treated separately from the council’s
other funding to ensure it is only spent on
the above services for council housing.
Q How are schools funded?
The costs of running the borough’s
schools are met through a separate
ring-fenced grant from the government
called Dedicated Schools Grant. This
grant was £260million in 2013/14. This
does not include the costs of academy
schools which are funded directly from
central government.
Q What are long term assets?
A long term asset relates to an asset the
council owns for more than one year.
This includes land, properties, vehicles,
equipment, roads etc. At 31 March
2014, the council had physical assets
worth £1,517million, of which council
housing accounts for about half.
Q What are levies?
Levies are payments made by the
council towards the costs of other
public service organisations such as the
West London Waste Authority and the
Coroners ‘Service. In 2013/14 these
payments made up around 10% of the
council’s net budget.
Q Where can I find more information?
The council produces a full 107-page
statement of accounts that can be
found on the council website at http://
www.ealing.gov.uk/info/200687/
council_budgets_and_spending/338/
statement_of_accounts
Also further information on how your
money is being spent is set out at
http://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/200687/
council_budgets_and_spending/1256/
open_and_accountable
Alternatively ,if you have any
comments or questions on
the council’s accounts or their
presentation, you can email
fi[email protected] or
write to The executive director
of corporate resources, Ealing
Council, Perceval House, 14-16
Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL.
around ealing
Autumn 2014
53