Why Auditors Can’t Sign Off Stratford Council’s Accounts for a Fifth Year

Auditors expect to give no opinion on Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s accounts for 2025/26, the fifth year running, but say they found no significant weaknesses in how the council looks after its money. Azets, the council’s external auditor, sets out both findings in its annual report to the Audit and Standards Committee, which meets at Elizabeth House at 5pm on Monday 9 November.

Giving no opinion (a “disclaimer”) doesn’t mean anything has been found wrong with the figures. Across England, years of council audits fell behind, and the government set legal “backstop” dates to clear the backlog. Where auditors couldn’t finish in time, they had to disclaim. Stratford’s accounts for the four years from 2021/22 to 2024/25 were all disclaimed this way, the auditors say, so they can’t yet rely on the opening balances for 2025/26 either. They won’t have rebuilt enough of that missing assurance before the next backstop, 31 January 2027.

When the council expects clean accounts

A separate “build back” plan from Azets sets out the route. It expects a disclaimer for 2025/26, a qualified (“except for”) opinion for 2026/27 and a clean opinion for 2027/28, provided all the planned work is done. The auditors rate the council at the lower end of the risk scale, so less checking of past spending is needed than at some councils. They are going back over the years since the last clean opinion, for 2020/21, and expect to finish that testing by June 2027.

The catch-up work has a price. Azets charged £66,090 for it in the 2024/25 audit and estimates £157,708 for 2025/26, or £223,798 so far, with later years still to be set. The fees need approval from Public Sector Audit Appointments, which appoints councils’ auditors. The council’s officers say the cost will be met from the existing budget.

What the auditors say about the council’s finances

• Value for money: no significant weaknesses in financial sustainability, governance or how services are run, and no “key” recommendations. No public interest report or statutory recommendations either.
• Reserves: £60.1 million in usable reserves at 31 March 2026, up from £52.2 million a year earlier. The general fund reserve was £20.6 million, well above the council’s own £3 million minimum and high compared with other district councils.
• Last year: services overspent by £2.3 million in 2025/26, and only £2.3 million of a £13.7 million capital budget was spent, mostly because of delays to projects paid for by developers’ contributions.
• The next five years: the budget plan balances only by drawing on reserves every year, and forecasts the general fund reserve falling to about £3.6 million by 2030/31.

The auditors also repeat last year’s advice on the planned South Warwickshire council, due in April 2029: councillors should keep weighing how today’s decisions and reserves affect the new council, and make sure money set aside is spent on what it was set aside for. The council has accepted that.

Also on Monday’s agenda

The committee also looks at the town’s CCTV figures, complaints about councillors and an internal audit of planning enforcement. For this year’s budget so far, see the council’s forecast underspend. The meeting is open to the public and will be shown live on the council’s YouTube channel; the agenda and papers are on the council’s website.

Alex Harrington

Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.