‘Major systemic problems’ are likely to prevent the Royal Borough from getting its accounts properly audited until 2027/28 at least – prolonging uncertainty over its financial health.

A five-year plan has been developed to help the cash-strapped Royal Borough restore auditors’ confidence in its accounts and eventually secure a ‘clean’ audit opinion.

‘Clean’ means that auditors have checked the council’s accounts and have enough evidence that they are accurate.

Local authorities publish accounts showing how much they have spent each year, with external auditors checking areas such as reserves, property and pensions.

From 2021/22 through to 2024/25, external auditors Grant Thornton gave the Royal Borough a ‘disclaimed’ opinion on its accounts – meaning auditors could not obtain enough evidence to form an opinion on whether the council’s accounts were accurate.

At an audit and governance committee meeting on Monday (September 7), papers set to go before councillors say auditors expect the 2025/26 audit opinion to remain disclaimed.

If the council completes the planned checks and no new major problems are found, auditors should gradually regain confidence in its accounts over the next few years, the documents say.

A plan for restoring auditors’ confidence in the council’s accounts will be presented at the Town Hall meeting on Monday.

However, this plan notes that the council could be waiting another five financial years to get a clean audit opinion, until 2029/30.

In its assessment of how difficult it will be for RBWM to get its accounts properly audited, Grant Thornton deemed the Royal Borough to be in category D – the lowest or worst category.

Auditors believe RBWM would not be able to get to a compliant audit by 2027/28 due to ‘major systemic problems’.

They said there were ‘material weaknesses’ evident in 2020/21 – the most recent year that a full audit was carried out.

Auditors also highlighted staff turnover in the Royal Borough’s finance team during the years when its accounts received disclaimed opinions.

While the council’s resources were ‘more stable’ in 2025/26, auditors said there was still a risk that records backing up financial transactions from previous years could be missing.

To get to a clean audit opinion, the Royal Borough will also need to provide auditors with reliable figures for its reserves.

The reserves are ‘complex’, auditors said – ie, not straightforward for auditors to verify.

For four years, auditors have not been able to verify figures showing how much money the council holds in those reserves.

In addition, the 2024/25 external audit process identified ‘valuation errors, omissions and incomplete disclosures’, which ‘significantly’ increase the risk that the figures for RBWM’s reserves may be inaccurate.

Royal Borough officers have already looked at Grant Thornton’s assessment – and have accepted that providing enough evidence to verify RBWM’s financial accounts by 2027/28 ‘may be challenging’.

But officers also believe the Royal Borough’s position is not as bad as Grant Thornton says.

They believe it is closer to category C than category D – meaning RBWM faces ‘practical constraints’ rather than ‘major systemic problems’.

Officers wrote: “The finance team has made significant progress in strengthening the processes, controls and systems that underpin the preparation of the statement of accounts.”

As evidence that the council’s financial systems and staffing had improved, officers pointed to its ability to publish the full draft 2025/26 accounts by the end of June – the statutory deadline.

Moreover, the council’s main financial systems ‘remain fundamentally robust’, officers added – and the team that puts the accounts together is fully staffed.