MenuAudit changes are being made by the Government for all sizes of local town and parish councils in an effort for greater transparency. From April 2017 the Government appointed external auditor will no longer be in place and this Council will need to appoint its own external auditor; however we may be given the opportunity to do this earlier. Smaller councils- those with annual income below £25k- are having to make changes from now. These include having a website with agendas and minutes as well as their financial procedures and policies. This will cause problems for many not only due to the lack of broadband in the more rural areas but also because of the finance involved in setting up and maintaining a website. We have had a website for a number of years but we are looking to refresh and expand it to make navigation easier and so we can upload more information such as the work from ‘In Memory of the Fallen.’
From next year we have to comply with government legislation by offering all our employees entry to a pension scheme- as we do not currently do this, there will need to be an increase in our budget to cover the contributions which we, as an employer, are obliged to make.