Brent Council is facing an unexpected £19,000 bill due to shortcomings in its asset record keeping, the Audit and Standards Committee heard on Wednesday, 3 December 2025. The Audit and Standards Committee was also asked to approve the final statement of accounts for 2024/25, and agree the audit fees for 2024/25, as set out in section 3.2.9 of the Statement of Accounts 24-25 report.

The additional fees were incurred as part of the audit of the council's 2024/25 Statement of Accounts by external auditors, Grant Thornton. The original audit plan fees were £545,235, with an additional £19,000 incurred primarily due to extra work on Plant, Property and Equipment. According to the Statement of Accounts 24-25 report, the extra costs arose primarily from the additional work required on Plant, Property and Equipment. Further fees may be incurred as part the audit of leases if additional work is required.

The council has been grappling with poor record keeping by service areas regarding plant, property, and equipment and leases in recent years. This has necessitated extensive reviews during both the preparation and audit stages to ensure the 2024/25 accounts are materially correct.

Minesh Patel, Corporate Director of Finance & Resources, outlined an improvement plan initiated after the 2023/24 audit to address these shortcomings. The plan initially focused on high-value assets and areas with significant issues, such as Assets under Construction and recently completed capital schemes. A second phase is underway to tackle remaining issues, including: ensuring that all property assets have the correct Universal Property Reference Number, reconciling the list of the council's assets back to the records held by the Land Registry on asset ownership, and ensuring that all areas of the council maintain adequate inventories of their assets as the council's constitution requires.

The Internal Audit has reviewed the Property department's Asset register and associated processes and will be making recommendations shortly.

The Statement of Accounts 24-25 report also noted that the government introduced 'backstop' dates in 2024 to address local authority audit backlogs. For 2024/25, the backstop date is 27 February 2026. If the audit of the accounts cannot be completed before the backstop date of 27 February 2026, then the auditor can issue a modified or disclaimed audit opinion. A disclaimer of opinion states that the auditor does not express an opinion on parts of the financial statements.