In the face of mounting financial pressures and increasing demand for services, many local authorities are grappling with a harsh reality: their budgets are stretched to breaking point.
Wokingham Borough is in no way immune to these pressures – the Council, along with other local authorities across the country, continues to face unprecedented challenges in setting a balanced budget for 2025/26. There are extreme pressures on statutory services (that the Council is legally obliged to provide) and demand for social care, including a rising need for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. While the high levels of inflation seen under the previous government have stabilised, those higher prices are now baked into the Council’s finances; furthermore, inflation continues to cause a financial challenge in some specific areas such as construction and utilities.
In these times of heightened financial strain our residents expect and require all councillors to work together to ensure Wokingham Borough Council remains financially resilient. It is disappointing that, rather than providing constructive contributions to the process of ensuring this outcome, the Conservatives persist in downplaying the financial situation insisting that it’s really not as bad as it seems. (It is.)
The Conservatives repeated claim that the Council’s “Core Spending Power” (the total amount of funding available to the Council) is higher than last year, and is higher than other Berkshire local authorities (except Slough), is correct. It is higher because Council tax take has gone up (as have inflationary costs). Yet the Conservatives use this to suggest that it is “misleading” of the Liberal Democrats to claim the Council is under financial stress.
For Wokingham, in recent years Core Spending Power has largely comprised a relatively small revenue support grant combined with Council tax receipts. The latter is relatively large in Wokingham Borough as a proportion, and the former vanishingly small, reflective of the relative wealth of our area.
When in power, every chance the Conservatives had they would remind us all that Wokingham Borough Council receives less core revenue support from central government, per head of population, than any other English council with its range of responsibilities. This was raised time and time again by the Conservatives when in control of the Council. Interestingly, now they are no longer in power, this is no longer relevant.
In reality the overall Core Spending Power relative to other Berkshire Councils has not changed since the Conservatives were in office. If you take the Conservatives’ last two years in power, for example, the Core Spending Power was also higher than all Berkshire authorities except Slough.
Presenting selective financial information to suit your political case is not what our residents expect or deserve.
The Core Spending Power data reveals that Council Tax constitutes a significantly larger portion of our Council’s income compared to the revenue support grant. When comparing all Councils across the country that provide adult social care, like Wokingham, it becomes clear that Wokingham’s Core Spending Power is neither the lowest nor the highest, but rather falls somewhere in the middle.
The Conservatives’ assertion that “it is misleading for the Liberal Democrats to claim there is no funding” is largely irrelevant when considering the broader context: all Councils have faced significant financial challenges since the Coalition government first started eviscerating the funding for local government. Funding in 2010. The Local Government Association has stated that in 2025-26, local Councils in England will face a £2.3bn budget gap. All over the country, services are being reduced and demand is being ‘managed’. The relentless cutbacks from Conservative government over the last 14 years has meant that the spectre of ‘bankruptcy’ falls over Councils across the land. Such a bankruptcy would mean that ALL non statutory services would be ended and the Council would be forced to sell assets (paid for by generations of residents of Wokingham) to pay off debts. This would be an utter disaster for the Borough.
The Conservatives stance that it is not all that bad really is also disrespectful of Council officers. This is in a context where workforce cuts are being implemented at Wokingham Borough Council to help save £28 million over the next three years. In addition, the Conservatives are well aware that inordinate amounts of work have been undertaken by officers over the years to arrive at balanced budgets for the Council. Over the last six years as a councillor I have been in awe of the dedication and perseverance of officers, who have persisted through a period where the borough Council budget has been cut by a whopping 50%. A prolonged period of year on year savings has meant extremely tough decisions have been made, some of which have been contentious. The Conservatives know that these decisions are inevitable given the financial situation – and yet they pretend otherwise, to serve political objectives.
It is the job of opposition councillors to oppose. But rather than offer constructive scrutiny, the Conservatives refuse to acknowledge the structural disaster their own government created and offer no useful solutions. A contentious proposal discussed at a recent Scrutiny Committee meeting was the introduction of car parking charges in areas where they are not currently implemented. Officers specifically requested that if councillors objected to the proposals, they offer alternative sources of revenue to bridge the gap. The Conservative representatives proffered nothing, yet immediately following the conclusion of the meeting made a public statement criticising the proposals. Short term political gain over constructive engagement – this is an approach that reduces trust in all elected representatives
The new Labour government has promised to reset the relationship between local and central government. In the recent budget the Chancellor promised an extra £1.3bn for Councils, £600m of which is dedicated to social care. Multi-year settlements and more transparent funding base will be a start in order to achieve greater financial resilience. Times remain incredibly challenging for Wokingham Borough, and for all local authorities, and it’s crucial that, for the sake of our Council and our residents, all councillors put aside short-term political gain in favour of constructive, meaningful engagement that will truly make a difference.
Cllr Rachel Burgess is leader of the Labour Group and Chair of Wokingham Borough Council’s Audit Committee
