BRADFORD Council's accounts are likely to be given a clean bill of heath by independent auditors.

At a meeting of the authority's Governance and Audit Committee on Monday morning, members heard from staff from Mazars accountancy firm, who were hired to assess the council's accounts for the last financial year.

The committee was told that in the coming days the firm would be issuing a statement saying the Council was offering value for money.

A draft audit report by the firm, presented to the committee, ends by saying: "We are satisfied that, in all significant respects, the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has put in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the year ended March 31 2018."

It also points out that while the Council managed to reduce spending by £22.6m in the past year, this was only half of the planned £46m of savings the authority had hoped to make. It says this was due to "increased demand for adult and children’s services, the increased difficulty in delivering savings as the Council reduces in size and as lower priority areas have already been cut."

The report adds that it will be "highly challenging" for the council to continue to make the savings it has to in the coming years in order to cope with the reduction in government grants.