In response to the Local Government Association's call for the Audit Commission to give its surplus funds to councils, Eugene Sullivan, Chief Executive of the Audit Commission, said;
‘We have already announced that councils will receive a £7million rebate this financial year. But the costs of abolition have to come from the public purse and the remainder of the Audit Commission’s reserves will contribute to meeting some of those costs.
'There will be no reserves left at the end of this financial year and the Department for Communities and Local Government will meet any outstanding liabilities relating to redundancy and premises that cannot be covered by the reserves.
'The Audit Commission board will be considering responses to its consultation about fees for 2011/12 at a meeting on 15 February. The consultation proposes that the 2011/12 scales of audit fees are based only on what the Commission needs in order to recover the costs of audits and its other activities in 2011/12. This would result in a saving of £6.3million for councils in that financial year.’