A message from Sarah Pook, Executive Director, Finance & Planning
Dear Colleagues,
Our financial statements for 2019-2020 are published today and are available here.
Despite the financial pressures presented by COVID-19 in the second half of this financial year, the University delivered a strong performance, ending the year on 31 July 2020 with an underlying surplus of £38M. The university has met well the challenges of operating in a COVID-19 world at a financial level, as well as in its response to tackling the virus, ensuring that the disruption has not negatively affected our core mission or financial sustainability.
This is the result of a concerted effort, across our staff community, on controlling our spending in response to the uncertainties of the global pandemic. I would like to thank colleagues for their role in this and acknowledge the compromises that will have been made in many areas to achieve this outcome.
Throughout this period our focus has been on protecting our cash, as delivering a surplus is only one measure of financial control and performance. There was a reduction in cash generation from operating activities on the prior year of £5.6M, to produce £62M. This reflects some of the income loss this year due to COVID-19 in areas such as catering, conference provision and halls of residences. Our cash reserves will support us with both our continued recovery from COVID-19 and with cautious investment into our University.
Much like last year and in line with other universities who are part of the USS pension scheme, our headline surplus of £102.7M is after the impact of a large exceptional item reflecting the impact of the 2018 Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) valuation.
Best wishes,
Sarah Pook
Executive Director, Finance & Planning
The following report has also been published today:
