Protecting public money

As a local authority, we are responsible for ensuring that every penny we receive is put to good use in providing services and protecting public money. We have a number of internal policies and controls in place to ensure that money is protected.

Financial regulations

Our  Financial Regulations (PDF 1MB) provide the overall rules for managing our financial activities. These include areas such as making payments, selling property, changing budgets and reporting overspends. They are approved by Full Council and apply to every employee, member and anyone acting on our behalf.

Fees and charges strategy

Our  fees and charges strategy (PDF 223KB) outlines the key principles to be considered in charging for services. It ensures charges are made in a transparent and consistent manner. 

Corporate anti-fraud

Fraud costs you, the taxpayers, money. Fraud includes, but is not limited to:

• Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit fraud
• Renovation grant fraud
• Housing tenancy fraud
• Fraud or corruption by employees

Please see the fraud section of our website for details on reporting fraud and how we deal with these reports.

Procurement standing orders

We try to ensure value for money and fairness in all our transactions. We have a strict set of rules in our constitution for our procurement activities, as well as a strategy (the Procurement Standing Orders) detailing how we approach buying.

Please see the procurement section of our website to find the standing orders and other information on procurement.

Treasury management strategy and practices

The treasury management operation makes sure that cash is available when it is needed. It ensures that we only keep money with the most reliable banks, and only borrow what we can afford to repay. It uses details from our forward service and project plans to ensure we plan financial activities appropriately.

The  Treasury Management Strategy Statement (PDF 523KB) provides the overall rules we follow in deciding which banks we can use, and what we can borrow.

The  Treasury Management Principles and Practices (PDF 713KB) set out the way we seek to achieve our treasury management policies and objectives from the strategy, and how we control those activities.

Members' allowances

An Independent Remuneration Panel advises us on our Members’ Allowances Scheme and the level of allowances that should be paid. We must consider this advice when reviewing or amending the scheme.

Please see the Members' Allowances section of our website for full details of Members' Allowances and the Independent Remuneration Panel.