Changes to simplify council accounts will not be implemented in the short-term due to a lack of capacity in the sector, a member of the leadership team at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has said.

CIPFA recently held an informal inaugural meeting of its Better Reporting Group, which will aim to provide advice to councils on how to streamline the information in their financial statements, but attempts at simplification have so far failed to bear fruit amid the backlog of more than 1,000 local government audits.