Audit Report

Independent auditor’s report to the members of settle group

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of settle Group (“the Association”) and its subsidiary (“the Group”) for the year ended 31 March 2021 which comprise the consolidated and Association statement of comprehensive income, the consolidated and Association statement of financial position, the consolidated and Association statement of changes in reserves, the consolidated statement of cash flow, and the related notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the Group’s and of the Association’s affairs as at 31 March 2021 and of the Group’s and the Association’s surplus for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been properly prepared in accordance with the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies (Group Accounts) Regulations 1969, the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Accounting Direction for Private Registered Providers of Social Housing 2019.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Independence

We remain independent of the Group and Association in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the board members’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group’s and the Association’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the board with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The Board is responsible for the other information. Other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information including the Strategic Report and the Report of the Board of management and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where we are required by the Co-operative or Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 or the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 to report to you if, in our opinion:

the information given in the Report of the Board of management for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is not consistent with the financial statements;
adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent Association; or
a satisfactory system of control has not been maintained over transactions; or
the parent Association financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of the Board

As explained more fully in the Statement of the Responsibilities of the Board, the Board is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the board members determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Board is responsible for assessing the Group and Association’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Board either intends to liquidate the Group or the Association or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists.

Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Extent to which the audit was capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the Group and the sector in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to their registration with the Regulator of Social Housing, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the Group Financial Statements or their continued operation. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements such as compliance with the Accounting Direction for Private Registered Providers of Social Housing and tax legislation.
We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls), and determined that the principal risks were related to posting inappropriate journal entries to manipulate financial results and management bias in accounting estimates.
Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Directors and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence if any.

The audit procedures to address the risks identified included:

challenging assumptions made by management in their significant accounting estimates and judgements in relation to the fair value of financial instruments, defined benefit pension scheme, assessment of loans as basic, management judgement relating to income recognition;
identifying and testing journal entries, in particular any journal entries posted from staff members with privilege access rights, journals posted by key management, journals posted and journals posted after the year end;
reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance, reviewing internal audit reports and reviewing correspondence with HMRC and the Regulator of Social Housing.

Our audit procedures were designed to respond to risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, recognising that the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery, misrepresentations or through collusion. There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures performed and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we are to become aware of it.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the members of the Association, as a body, in accordance with the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Association’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Association and the members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Philip Cliftlands (Senior Statutory Auditor)

BDO LLP Statutory Auditor, Chartered Accountants London 26 July 2021

BDO LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (with registered number OC305127).