In theory, undertaking due diligence on a local authority should be relatively straightforward. As public sector entities, they are required to produce a range of documents each year, including financial statements, strategy documents, corporate plans and much more. All of which is made readily available to anyone with internet access. There’s also information relating to all committee meetings available, including agendas, minutes, discussion documents, and any associated agreements. As well as helping to find those documents, the internet also allows instant and easy access to the latest news articles.
The reality, however, can be somewhat different. Many councils, for a variety of reasons, are behind on providing documents such as financial statements, and with so many council meetings each month, navigating through multiple committee meeting website sections to find the latest versions of documents that may have been originally issued many months before is both time-consuming and generally easier said than done.
On top of that, while councils are required to submit returns to central government, which are then made available publicly, trying to draw out the useful and relevant pieces of information from very large and data-dense spreadsheets can feel like an unsurmountable challenge to both patience and determination. And that assumes data returns have been completed correctly and submitted on time!
Then, only once all this information has been obtained can the challenge of reviewing it and drawing conclusions based on understanding the important and ignoring the irrelevant start.
Arlingclose has been providing treasury management advice to local authorities for 20 years, giving us extensive experience in understanding, analysing, and interpreting the wide range of council-related information and distilling it into clear and simple advice.
Our due diligence can range from the relatively top-level to the very detailed.
At the more top level, our Financial Strength Ratings use a variety of government-published statistics to calculate what we consider to be key financial metrics. These metrics then allow us to calculate a number of measures which then enables easy comparisons to be drawn across all local authorities in the UK.
While at the detailed end of the analysis spectrum, in additional to the financial metrics, detailed reviews of balance sheets, capital programmes, debt, policies, Code compliance, revenue and reserves, governance, audit, and current issues are all use to form a comprehensive picture of the authorities to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
Recognising the many pressures local authorities are under and the difficulties in trying to understand more than just what news headlines might suggest, being armed with our analysis enables our clients to make significantly better-informed choices when it comes to their borrowing and investment decisions.
If you would like to know how our local authority due diligence may help you, please get in touch at treasury@arlingclose.com.
Related Insights
Why Local Authorities Really Matter