Steven Andrew Brown
Coventry
Summary
A CIMA qualified Accountant that has vast experience within the Public Sector, both within local government (15 Years) and the NHS (3 years).
I have worked in the Housing sector of local government for 10 years and have a good understanding of Housing Revenue Account.
I deliver accurate financial support across budget monitoring, forecasting and variance analysis to strengthen decision-making.
I manage accounts, year-end activity and management reporting with precision, while presenting clear financial information to non-finance audiences and supporting stakeholder collaboration. Builds strong working relationships with service managers, senior leaders and external partners to support informed financial control. I interpret complex data, quality-assures reports and applies sound judgement to improve compliance, accountability and service delivery.
Overview
1
1
Certification
27
27
years of professional experience
Work History
Accountant (Resources, Public Health & UK Central)
Solihull MBC
06.2026 - Current
- Grant Bid Costing, Monitionring of income & expenditure, ensuring all claims fall within the grant condiations
- Maximising the use of external funds, creating savings from inetrnal funds in doing so.
- Monitor and record output against performance targets, taking corrective action escalating issues where required.
- Compile VAT returns for 3 Organisations
- Represent team at wider organisational meetings, both internally or externally.
- Provide accurate, timely and meaningful financial information to Members, Directors, senior management, service managers and finance colleagues, both internal and external.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues, service managers and other stakeholders to support the delivery of team and organisational objectives
- Interpret and analyse complex financial and non-financial data from a range of sources, applying sound professional judgment to produce clear and insightful management information.
- Apply technical expertise/professional analysis to to complex problem-solving activities, guiding the Council’s decision-making.
- Review and quality-assure the financial implications of reports and decisions to ensure accuracy and compliance
- Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of financial policies, procedures and processes, ensuring high-quality service delivery.
- Line management, supervision and support to finance officers as required, including objective setting, 1:1s, performance management and wellbeing oversight.
Assistant Accountant (Resources, SCH & Commercial)
Solihull MBC - For (SCH)Solihull Community Housing
07.2016 - 06.2026
- Part of a team who managed the Financial management of SCH who manages about 10,000 properties on behalf of SMBC.
- ALMO received funds from SMBC (using HRA Funds, funded mainly by rent received by tenants goes)
- Mianly repsonsible for Capital (£27m) and Asset Management directorates (£28m) this includes our Aids and Adaptations team who manage the DFG – which I complete the annual returns for.
- Budget Holder meetings to discuss budgets, forecasts and staffing costs alongside any income we genrate or any potential savings.
- Service redsign / Financiual Modelling (Service works plus Fees and charges)
- Ensured budget holders were aware of roles and deadlines near year-end, overseeing review of accruals and completion of capital carry forward requests.
- I have implemented a new coding structure for our Compliance division to aid the Head of Service by creating more cost centres but making it more informative. The subjective codes are more descriptive and allows for deeper dives when analysing spend.
- Lead finance role for our Strategic Property Management Partnership (SPMP), a £9m contract, where I meet with both budget holders and the sub-contractor Finance Leads and service leads.
- Present the financial information at the SPMP operational meetings meaning I can present financial information to those with a non-financial background.
- The HRA is managed by a different Finance team within SMBC, but we work closely with them. There is a lot of cross over in the work that is completed where we have monthly intercompany recharges/income that need to be agreed – I am responsible for this and then also agreeing any intercompany balances between SMBC and SCH at the end of the financial year.
- Served as deputy to line manager in presenting current financial position to SLT; created and delivered finance training to budget holders and admin staff to enhance financial understanding.
- We work closely with our external auditor at year end; in the past I have been the lead contact for our auditors with daily meetings and ensuring our team have completed all our own working papers are uploaded to the auditor’s portal before they start.
- Line mangementI: Held monthly 121s to communicate priorities and exposed them to new experiences and skills to enhance team resilience.
- Oversee tasks they do such as Leaseholder recharges, balance sheet reconciliations, RTB logs amongst others. I have also created a library of tasks which we can give to work experience placements – which is a regular occurrence.
- I am aware of the pressures that the Housing Sector faces from reducing income from the RTB sales (I also completed our quarterly RTB Pooling return) to increased costs for areas.
- I am aware of the pressures that the Housing Sector faces from both Damp & Mould issues and increased fire protection/complaince costs.
- Tracked increased sub-contractor expenses arising from COVID-19 challenges – needing to work smarter to achieve the same results as budgets have not increased at the same rate.
- I will also consult with other services around SCH/SMBC such as ICT, Procurement and HR. I am good at building relationships with both my own team and the services - both internal and external and I can communicate effectively with all levels of staff.
Assistant Accountant
University of Warwick – Warwick Business School
03.2014 - 07.2016
Accounting Technician
Coventry City Council
02.2009 - 02.2014
Assistant Divisional Accountant
South Warwickshire General Hospital NHS Trust
01.2006 - 02.2009
Accounts Payable Assistant
University Of Warwick
03.2004 - 01.2006
Accounts Assistant (Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable)
City College Coventry
07.1999 - 02.2004
Education
CIMA
01-2026
AAT
GCSE -
Finham park Comprehensive School
Coventry01-1999
Skills
- 18 Years Experiance in Public Sector Finance Roles
- Budgeting & Forecasting
- Management Accounting
- Budget Preparation
- Variance analysis
- Journals & Virements
- General ledger accounting
- Financial modelling
- Cross team Working
- VAT Returns
- Stakeholder engagement
- Intercompany cost reconciliation
- Time management
- Line Management
- Working closely with external auditors
- Excel (V/X Lookups, PIVOTS, SUMIFS, Powerquery)
- Credit control
Certification
- CIMA: Qualified January 2026
- AAT: Qualified 2010
- UK Driving License - Clean
- DBS Checked
IT PROGRAMMES:
- Oracle Cloud
- Oracle
- Open Housing
- INSIGHT (reports generated from Open Housing)
- Agresso
- SAP
- MS Office (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
Timeline
Accountant (Resources, Public Health & UK Central)
Solihull MBC
06.2026 - Current
Assistant Accountant (Resources, SCH & Commercial)
Solihull MBC - For (SCH)Solihull Community Housing
07.2016 - 06.2026
Assistant Accountant
University of Warwick – Warwick Business School
03.2014 - 07.2016
Accounting Technician
Coventry City Council
02.2009 - 02.2014
Assistant Divisional Accountant
South Warwickshire General Hospital NHS Trust
01.2006 - 02.2009
Accounts Payable Assistant
University Of Warwick
03.2004 - 01.2006
Accounts Assistant (Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable)
City College Coventry
07.1999 - 02.2004
CIMA
AAT
GCSE -
Finham park Comprehensive School