Council Statement of Accounts in Plain English: 12 Numbers and Hidden Waste

Most council finance papers read like they were written to keep ordinary people out. That suits a system where waste can pass unnoticed.

Yet the council statement of accounts is where last year’s choices show up in hard numbers. For Reform UK supporters, every pound wasted is a pound not spent on roads, safer streets, stronger town centres, or keeping young people in the North East.

Once you know the small set of figures that matter, the fog lifts fast.

What a council statement of accounts really tells you

Think of the budget as the promise, and the accounts as the receipt. A budget says what the council planned to do. The accounts show what it actually spent, what it owed, what it held, and what risks it pushed into the future.

The Local Government Association’s guide to the statement of accounts treats it as the key yearly financial report. In plain English, it’s the truth test.

That matters in Durham. Residents hear the same pressures again and again: underinvestment in roads and public spaces, strain on GP and NHS access, high energy bills despite the region’s energy history, weak high streets, and too many young people leaving to find better chances elsewhere. If the council says money is tight, the accounts help you see whether cash is genuinely short, priorities are wrong, or waste is taking the margin.

You also have a right to look. The GOV.UK guide to council spending and accounts explains that councils must open detailed accounts to the public for 30 working days each year. That means the papers are not only for auditors, finance officers, or insiders.

The latest published Durham County Council accounts relate to 2024/25 and went to the Audit Committee on 26 Nov 2025. As of April 2026, the 2025/26 statement is not out yet. So if you want facts instead of slogans, the last published accounts are still your best starting point.

If a council says there’s no money, check spending, borrowing, and reserves before you believe the line.

The 12 numbers that matter most

Most pages in these reports are noise for ordinary readers. A solid plain-English explanation of the statement of accounts makes the same point, you only need a few figures to grasp the story.

Here is the short list worth tracking year after year:

Number	What it means	Why it matters
1. Net cost of services	Service cost after fees and charges	Shows the real running bill
2. Council tax requirement	Amount raised from residents	Shows pressure on households
3. Business rates retained	Local share of business rates	Shows how much growth stays local
4. Government grants	Money from central government	Shows reliance on outside funding
5. Total reserves	All reserves added together	Big headline figure, but needs unpacking
6. Usable reserves	Money the council can use	The real financial cushion
7. Unusable reserves	Accounting balances, not spendable cash	Stops you being misled by large reserve totals
8. Borrowing / loans outstanding	Total debt owed	Debt today means pressure tomorrow
9. Debt interest	Annual cost of servicing debt	Money not spent on front-line services
10. Capital spending	Spend on assets like roads or buildings	Good for basics, risky for vanity schemes
11. Pension liability (IAS 19)	Long-term pension gap on accounting rules	Big number, but not a bill due tomorrow
12. Cash & cash equivalents	Money in the bank at year-end	Shows short-term breathing room

Read these figures together. Big reserves can sit beside rising debt. Large capital projects can sit beside weaker day-to-day services. And if unusable reserves look huge, don’t mistake them for a cash pile ready to spend.

Where the waste hides in plain sight

Waste rarely appears on a line called waste. It hides in notes, side tables, and decisions that look harmless one by one.

Start with related party transactions. A deal involving a connected person or organisation is not always wrong. Still, it deserves bright light. If the same names keep cropping up around contracts, grants, or land deals, ask whether the process was open and whether the council got value.

Then look at agency staff costs. Temporary cover can be sensible, especially in social care. However, heavy agency use year after year points to weak workforce planning and higher hourly rates. When councils plead poverty but keep paying premium fees, something is off.

Next come consultancy and contracts. Outside advice has its place. Yet councils often pay consultants to tell them what staff already know, then pay another firm to carry it out. If contract costs rise but services don’t improve, that is not modern management. It’s drift.

Another hiding place is capitalisation of spend. Some costs can be moved into capital and spread over future years. That can be fair when creating a real asset. It can also make the current year’s service costs look tidier than life on the ground feels. If roads worsen, town centres struggle, and public spaces decline while the books look neat, dig deeper.

Finally, check PFI, leases, and long-term commitments. These are the pay-later bills. A project can look affordable at the launch and costly for years after. The annual interest and lease payments then crowd out money that could support basics, local firms, or safer communities.

This is why Reform UK talks so much about accountability and common-sense government. The issue isn’t paperwork. It’s whether Durham’s money goes to residents or to the machine itself.

How to use the accounts without being an accountant

You don’t need finance training to make sense of this. Compare this year with last year. Then compare the council’s public claims with the hard numbers.

If council tax rises, borrowing climbs, debt interest grows, and agency costs stay stubbornly high, that isn’t bad luck. It’s a sign the council is not getting a grip. If capital spending rises but residents still see poor roads, fading centres, and weak local services, the question is simple: what did the money buy?

For a wider look at the forward plan, pair the accounts with our step-by-step guide to reading council budgets. The budget shows the promise. The accounts show whether last year’s promise held up.

The bottom line

Most finance papers try to shut you out. They lose that power once you know the 12 numbers and the five places where waste likes to hide.

For Durham, this isn’t abstract. If the money doesn’t back better roads, stronger high streets, safer communities, and more local opportunity, the priorities are wrong. Follow the accounts, and the story becomes hard to dodge.