Balance sheet disaggregation will allow councils to move forward with finances

08 August 2024

The split of the former Northamptonshire County Council’s balance sheet has now been finalised and agreed.

A paper before North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive next week will decide how the capital financing requirement and capital adjustment account will be divided between the authority and neighbouring West Northamptonshire Council. A similar decision will also be taken by West Northamptonshire Council next week.

The focus of reaching this position was to ensure that this did not cause any financial distress to either party and this will allow both councils to begin finalising their accounts.

“Coming to a position of mutual agreement on the final balance sheet for the former county council was a complex task and I’m delighted that we can now move forward from this significant milestone in our unitary journey.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work and determination on this and we will continue to develop our close connections with our friends in West Northamptonshire, further enhancing our collaborative working.”Jason Smithers, Leader of North Northamptonshire Council

“This was no simple task and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who worked so closely and constructively to bring this to a satisfactory resolution for both councils.

“This means we can all move forward, begin to finalise our accounts and continue to build on and foster the excellent working relationships we’ve managed to develop with North Northamptonshire over the recent period.”Cllr Adam Brown, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council

On March 31, 2021 Northamptonshire County Council and the district and borough councils in Northamptonshire ceased and were replaced with two new unitary councils.

While the district and borough councils’ balance sheets have been aggregated Northamptonshire County Council’s balance sheet needed to be split or disaggregated between WNC and NNC. The high-level principles for splitting the balance sheet were agreed by both shadow authorities prior to vesting day.

While most balances on the former county council’s balance sheet were able to be disaggregated based on the agreed principles there were a number of balances which were technically more difficult to allocate.