Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee considered a Report of the Chamberlain concerning the draft BHE Annual Report and Financial Statements.

The Chamberlain confirmed that the Audit & Risk Management Committee had considered the Report at its meeting on 1 October, whilst A&RM Members recommended Finance Committee approve the Report, it noted an “emphasis of matter” concerning the valuation of the property portfolio, this was in light of the impact of Covid. More details have been included in the final report and this issue is considered uncontentious.

The Chamberlain briefly touched on some of the highlights for BHE across 2019/20, namely:

·         The transfer of £200m from the unrestricted income fund – to the grant making designated fund

·         A revised reserves policy specifying £35m in reserves

·         A record breaking 11 months for visitor numbers at Tower Bridge

·         Grant making – record high of £33.7m

Alongside the discussion around the “emphasis of matter” A&RM noted some other non-material issues – these were highlighted to Finance Committee Members before today’s meeting and the paper had been updated to include these revisions.

In response to a Member raising concerns around whether our giving is as pacey as it could be, the Chairman and the Chamberlain assured Members that the CBT and Central Grants Teams were processing a record number of grant applications and were not facing impediments about giving more in response to the crisis; in short “we were doing all we could”.

The Chairman added that the total allocation was now set over a 5-year period – this had brought extra flexibility as we could front load our grant giving into the first and second years in response to Covid, although this would clearly have implications for years 4 and 5.

RESOLVED – that the Committee approved the following:

·         Approve the BHE Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended

31 March 2020 taking into account any observations from the Audit and Risk

Committee; and

·         Agree that the BHE Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year

ended 31 March 2020 are signed by the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of

the Finance Committee on behalf of the Court of Common Council, being the

Trustee of BHE.