North West Leicestershire District Council chief executive Bev Smith had apologised 'unreservedly' after a confidential report revealed that £667,000 had been lost from the Council's Housing Revenue Account, due to error.

The Labour Group on the District Council has also called for the resignation of Conservative Councillor Roger Bayliss as Housing, Property and Customer Services Portfolio Holder as a result.

Councillors were told at a meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee that the issue commenced in 2018/19 and was identified in 2019/20.

This loss takes the form of a series of grant payments over a seven year period.

Labour Group Leader, Councillor Sean Sheahan, described the loss as a "gaping hole in the Council's finances, the impact of which will be felt by Council tenants."

The money was lost due to a failure to claim Government grants, to which the Council was entitled, under the Renewable Heating Incentive.

An internal investigation concluded that it was not possible to take any further action regarding any member of staff.

Councillor Sheahan said: "This was a failure of management controls and the time it has taken for it to come out in the open is troubling.

"At the end of the day, someone has to take responsibility and we think that has to be the Councillor who was in charge of housing at the time."

Councillor Bayliss is expected to make a statement on the matter to the Full Council meeting on February 23.

Chief Executive Smith, who is also Head of Paid Service at North West Leicestershire District Council, said: "In 2019 it came to light that human error had resulted in a failure to claim £667,000 of Government funding due to the district council through the Government's Renewable Heating Incentive scheme.

"We have completed a thorough investigation into this serious issue which showed failures in the control mechanisms within the housing team to ensure that these claims were made.

"We have now put procedures in place to ensure this does not happen again.

"I'd like to apologise unreservedly for this costly error – not only to our tenants who benefit from our Housing Revenue Account, but to the wider community too.

We continue to pursue the funding from Government despite missing the deadline for the claim and await further news on this."

The committee concluded: "An internal investigation has been conducted and a series of corrective measures have been put in place to prevent a similar issue from occurring, and further work will build on the lessons learnt from this issue.

"The primary issue at fault was a failure of the council's first line controls at that time. The internal investigation also concluded it is not possible to take any further action regarding any member of staff.

"The portfolio holder is intending to make a statement at the full council in February 2021 to ensure full transparency.

"This committee will receive an update into the remaining outstanding issues they wished to be assessed.

"This includes a timeline of events, remedial actions put in place, and further consideration as to whether any retrospective action can be progressed."