Politics often has a short-term focus. What politicians tend to think, will win my party the next election?
But alluring as seems to some, short-term thinking is the enemy of good decision making and ultimately fails the public that politicians are meant to serve. Short-term popularity can easily lead to long-term insolvency. If a council shies away from necessary savings, or refuses to raise much-needed income, it will end up unable to do anything worthwhile to help the people in its area.
At Wokingham Borough Council, we have over the last three years tried to adopt a more long-term approach. Under enormous financial pressure as demand for our services and the cost of providing them grows, but our income in real terms falls as government reduces its core revenue support, we have had to make difficult decisions on savings. If we had followed the advice of those who preferred short-term popularity, we would be in a financially much weaker position today.
At the same time, we have put a great deal of emphasis on prevention and early intervention, to reduce cost pressures downline. In a similar vein, we have invested money in projects that will produce savings or generate an income in years to come.
Another important aspect of future-proofing the council is our determination to keep our reserves of all types at a healthy level. We have released only small quantities of those reserves when it is safe and prudent to do so. We have resisted the temptation to go down the route of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which, while led by the Conservatives, repeatedly subsidized services by raiding the reserves. The Conservatives secured the short-term popularity that they were looking for – raiding the reserves meant that they could freeze the council tax, which helped them win elections. But the longer-term consequences were dire. The reserves were slowly but surely run down to a dangerously low level. The Liberal Democrat administration that took control of the Royal Borough in May 2023 inherited an impossibly difficult situation, with the cupboard almost bare.
Partnership working is also part of our strategy of looking to the future. Councils like Wokingham are likely to be short of money for many years to come, as the government redistributes support to those areas deemed to be in greater need. We either stop doing things to support our community or we do them differently.
Over the last three years we have placed great emphasis on working with others. We have created new partnerships, or developed existing ones, with the voluntary and charitable sector, business, school academy trusts, the University of Reading, faith groups, health providers, the police, and the Youth Council. By pooling expertise, experience, data and resources – human, material, and financial – we are together able to do more than any one of us can do on their own.
Both our sound financial management and our commitment to partnership has been recognized externally. A recent survey by the consultancy Impower identified Wokingham as the fifth best council in the country in terms of efficiency, measured by outcomes achieved per pound spent. Our success in partnerships won us a place on the short list for the prestigious ‘Local Authority of the Year’ competition. Encouraged by these validations, we will redouble our efforts to put long-term viability above short-term political advantage.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
