The section 114 notice was filed largely due to a ‘prematurely disclosed and potentially overstated equal pay liability’ which ‘deflected public attention’ from additional issues claimed a report by Sheffield University and the Audit Reform Lab but auditor Grant Thornton stated this was incorrect, and many of the findings have been assumed due to information not being in the public domain.

The equal pay liability was assumed to be at or around £760m, with the full estimated deficit of the council stretching to £1.25bn. However, the full extent of the equal pay liability is still not known with former Conservative housing minister Michael Gove previously stating it ‘is likely’ to be more than this with errors spanning over many years.

In