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.

The Treasury Management Strategy

We define our treasury management activities as the management of our borrowing, investments, cash flows, banking, money market and capital market transactions, the effective control of the risks associated with those activities, and the pursuit of optimum performance consistent with those risks.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's (CIPFA) revised 2017 Prudential and Treasury Management Codes require all local authorities to prepare, in addition, a capital strategy report.

 Treasury Management Strategy 2021-2022 (PDF 1MB)

The Capital Strategy

The capital strategy gives a high-level overview of how capital expenditure, capital financing and treasury management activity contribute to the provision of local public services, along with an overview of how associated risk is managed and the implications for future financial sustainability.

Capital expenditure is where we spend money on assets, such as property or vehicles that will be used for more than one year. In local government, this includes spending on assets owned by other bodies, and loans and grants to other bodies enabling them to buy assets.

The Asset Management Strategy

This strategy sets out how we intend to use our property portfolio to support the priorities identified in our Corporate Plan, and how we plan to improve the performance of our assets. The strategy also informs and supports our Medium Term Financial Strategy. Our social housing stock is covered separately under the Housing Strategy.

 Capital Strategy 2021-2022 (PDF 687KB)

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.