This bulletin covers the closure of accounts for the 2024/25 year and provides further guidance and clarification to complement the 2024/25 Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom: Guidance Notes for Practitioners (Code Guidance Notes). It addresses, where relevant, frequently asked questions and other issues that have arisen, along with corrections to both the 2024/25 Code and 2024/25 Code Guidance Notes.
We have been made aware that paragraph 29c) within the bulletin refers to paragraph 3.3.1.4 of the 2025/26 Code. The wording of that paragraph within the 2025/26 Code will be as follows:
3.3.1.4 When applying the changes to the measurement of non-investment assets including intangible assets (agreed following HM Treasury’s Thematic Review of Non-investment Asset Valuation) from 2025/26 and throughout the transition period (the first full revaluation cycle), authorities are not required to follow the requirements of IAS 8 following a change in accounting policy (see paragraph 19 of IAS 8). Changes to the valuation of non-investment assets as set out in the Code will be applied prospectively, with no restatement of prior year figures.
For the avoidance of doubt, entities do not need to professionally revalue all PPE in 2025/26 to implement changes to the regime for valuing PPE. For example: An entity holds a building which was last professionally revalued on 1 April 2023. The next 5-yearly revaluation would be on 1 April 2028, which is 5 years from the last valuation.