Statement of Accounts 2020-21 Norfolk County Council Statement of Accounts 2020-21 Contents Narrative Report ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Statement of Responsibilities ................................................................................................................................... 18 Independent Auditors’ Report to the Members of Norfolk County Council .............................................................. 19 Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement ............................................................................................... 22 Movement in Reserves Statement ........................................................................................................................... 23 Balance Sheet .......................................................................................................................................................... 24 Cash Flow Statement ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Notes to the Financial Statements ........................................................................................................................... 26 Group Accounts ...................................................................................................................................................... 106 Group Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement .................................................................................. 111 Group Movement in Reserves Statement .............................................................................................................. 112 Group Balance Sheet ............................................................................................................................................. 113 Group Cash Flow Statement .................................................................................................................................. 114 Notes to the Group Accounts ................................................................................................................................. 115 Norfolk Firefighters Pension Fund Accounts .......................................................................................................... 130 Notes to the Norfolk Firefighters Pension Fund Accounts ..................................................................................... 131 Norfolk Pension Fund Accounts ............................................................................................................................. 132 Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of Norfolk County Council ............................................................ 133 Revenue and Fund Account ................................................................................................................................... 135 Net Assets Statement ............................................................................................................................................. 136 Notes to the Pension Fund Accounts ..................................................................................................................... 137 Glossary of Terms .................................................................................................................................................. 196 Contents 1 Norfolk County Council Statement of Accounts 2020-21 Narrative Report a) About Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is a shire county representing the whole of Norfolk. The county covers a large area of around 550,000 hectares and is home to approximately 900,000 residents. Norfolk contains several diverse economies, located within rural, urban and coastal environments. Local Government services in Norfolk are also provided by seven district/borough councils and numerous town and parish councils. Norfolk County Council has 84 elected members each representing an electoral division of up to 10,000 voters. Every four years the people of each division elect one councillor. Throughout 2020-21 the Council was governed by a Conservative majority. The most recent election held on 6 May 2021 resulted in the Council remaining under Conservative control. The Council is governed through a cabinet decision-making system and an executive leader. As well as the Cabinet, there is a Scrutiny Committee, three select committees, and the decision-making process is supported by a number of specialist committees, panels and working groups. Prior to May 2019 the Council had a Committee structure whose membership reflected the overall political makeup of the Council. Throughout the year the Council’s operational structure has been based on Executive Directors reporting to the Head of Paid Service. The directors lead the following departments: • Adult Social Services • Children’s Services • Community and Environmental Services • Strategy and Transformation • Governance • Finance and Commercial Services. For the majority of 2020-21, the Strategy and Transformation and Governance directorates were combined in a Strategy and Governance directorate. The budget was based on a combined department in 2020-21, and for 2021- 22 has been split to reflect the changes in executive director responsibilities. b) Councils Performance 2020-21 Throughout 2020-21 everyone had to make many adjustments to their lives and work, and the Council was no exception. Huge changes have been implemented over the past few months to try to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on every aspect of our work and the services we provide. As a Council, we have faced the challenges head on, working with all our partners to respond to the needs of our people and communities. Most importantly, this crisis has ensured that we work better together with those partners, joining up our resources to ensure our vulnerable people are protected and supported. The Council has continued to provide the services that people need and which make a difference to their lives and their work in line with its vision which states: “We care about Norfolk and its people and are ambitious for them. We want to help make Norfolk to be the best it can, where people can live productive, independent lives, safely and in good health, for as long as they can. The Council will play a leading role in ensuring that Norfolk has a growing economy, thriving people and strong communities.” This section gives examples of progress against these three key themes. 2 Narrative Report Norfolk County Council Statement of Accounts 2020-21 Growing our economy Supporting businesses Over the past year the Council has continued to support our local businesses through a number of grants and programmes: • Helping over 658 businesses and 1,226 individuals by supporting new apprenticeships and helping small and medium businesses, in the sectors most affected by COVID-19, to provide employees with new skills and support. • Working with partners to secure £17m for Norfolk, benefitting projects such as the Offshore Wind Operations & Maintenance base, the business incubator units at Great Yarmouth and a Food Innovation Centre; paving the way to create future, high skilled jobs in Norfolk. • We completed the £9m LEADER programme delivering over 200 projects that created jobs, helping rural businesses and community groups to grow, and supporting our rural economy. • Our successful Go Digital programme, launched in November 2020, provides one-to-one consultancy and business vouchers. We helped 40 micro, small and medium sized businesses to do more with digital and are exploring ways to scale up further. • We continue to support low carbon business developments and reducing greenhouse gases through the Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 programme, which will to invest £11m in Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire for developments that make measurable reductions. Strong infrastructure We continue to invest in infrastructure, where it is needed, to improve the economic status of our county. • In November 2020, the Council secured Government approval for the vital funding needed to build and operate the £120m Great Yarmouth Third River Crossing, a crucial new lifting bridge across the River Yare in Great Yarmouth. The bridge will ease traffic congestion on the town’s roads, shortening journey times and improving journey reliability. Construction began in early 2021, with the bridge scheduled to be open for use in early 2023. • We have secured two lots of funding, £0.3m and £1.5m, from the Government’s Active Travel Fund to facilitate social distancing measures to help pedestrians; assist our businesses to safely reopen, and to deliver significant walking and cycling infrastructure. Good connectivity We continue to invest in digital infrastructure and in improving the coverage across the County, for households and businesses alike. • We successfully bid for £2m in investment from the Department for Rural Affairs (DEFRA), to enable Full Fibre connections to around 400 Norfolk rural businesses, expected to complete in 2021. • We have started work to build new future-proof Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, where fibre is laid all the way from the exchange to people’s front doors, and 5G has now gone live in Norwich on the O2 Network. • We successfully rolled out the largest free public sector Low Range Wide