Wokingham Borough Council, as many of you know, receives the lowest level of core revenue support from central government of any council in England with its range of responsibilities.
That unfortunate situation is a consequence of our relatively low levels of recorded deprivation – though we know that there are still many people in hardship in the borough, and perhaps still more who are just about managing.
We also have to meet the rising costs of delivering adult and children’s social care, which accounts for more than two-thirds of our total spending. Those costs, it should be stressed, are rising in apparently wealthy Wokingham as much, if not more, than in many council areas with much higher levels of financial hardship. We may have lower levels of recorded deprivation than other councils, but that does not mean that we have fewer people who need support.
We had hoped that the new government would recognize the rising cost of delivering adult and children’s services and give us more help. Instead, ministers have placed even greater emphasis on deprivation in their allocation of core revenue support. As a result, we have lost £1 million of our already very limited government revenue grant.
In the absence of anything like the level of government funding received by other councils, we are obliged to raise locally the vast majority of what we need to pay for vital services for our residents. Fees and charges contribute, but the council tax is by far our biggest source of income.
We always seek to spend your council tax wisely. We have focused on prevention and early intervention measures, which reduce demand, or meet demand before it becomes acute (and therefore more expensive), and so save money in the longer term.
We also work closely with bodies outside the council to maximize the impact of the money we spend. Partnerships with other councils, the voluntary and charitable sector, Reading University, and local businesses, enable us to pool knowledge, expertise, and resources to make every pound we spend stretch further and be used to good effect.
External assessments suggest we are doing the right things. The Impower consultancy recently compiled an index of high-performing councils, measured by core service productivity, or outcomes achieved per pound spent.
Wokingham is in the top ten of all councils in England responsible for adult and children’s services. We are ranked as number five.
Given the low level of core revenue support that we receive from central government – the lowest level per head of population of all the councils assessed in the Impower index – this is a very considerable achievement.
Our council officers are, of course, principally responsible for our success; as I’ve said many times, they are our greatest asset as an organization.
But it’s worth noting that the highly respected Municipal Journal’s analysis of the results tells us that the top ten councils have two things in common – first, a culture of expressing ‘gratitude towards hard-working staff’ and second, ‘a focus on working with external partners’.
Both are hallmarks of the approach of the Liberal Democrat administration that has been running Wokingham Borough Council since May 2022.
Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
