To receive a report of the outcome of a Compliance Audit by Homes England in relation to grant funding received by the Council for the White House Hostel.

The Chief Finance Officer presented a report to the Committee which outlined the results of the Homes England Compliance Audit.  The Council had received a grant from Homes England partly funding the development of the White House Hostel and as part of the process had to provide assurance that the Council had met all of Homes England’s funding conditions, contractual requirements and also properly exercised their responsibilities in respect of the grant. 

Homes England had provided a very concise document reporting on the outcome of the audit which confirmed that all programme requirements and guidance had been met and no breaches identified.  The Chief Finance Officer undertook to confirm with Homes England that the report received was the full report and would then circulate it to members of the Committee.

BDO advised that they had been required to complete an online compliance checklist.

In response to a question regarding the selection of the auditor, the Chief Finance Officer advised that it was at the Council’s discretion and it had seemed sensible to ask BDO, as the Council’s external auditors, to undertake this. 

It was noted that the Equality and Diversity section of the accompanying report had been marked as ‘not applicable’.  The Chief Finance Officer advised that the comment related specifically to the audit process but accepted that it may have been appropriate to add some comment in relation to the project and would note this for the future.

The Committee was pleased to note that the report graded compliance as green.  The Housing Strategy Lead Officer and the housing team were thanked for their work as were BDO, the auditors.

The Committee resolved to note the outcome of the Compliance Audit.