Wokingham Liberal Democrats welcomed their party’s deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, to the borough last week.
She was in the borough to mark the recent election result that saw the party take overall control of Wokingham borough council.
Speaking exclusively to Wokingham Today, she said: ”I’m here today to congratulate our supporters and councillors, to thank them for working so hard and to share in their celebrations.
“It’s an incredibly difficult time to be running a local council.
“We all know that local government budgets were cut repeatedly under the last government, and there doesn’t appear to be much change coming under the new government.
“It is difficult for every local council of any political persuasion, but I know from speaking to MP Clive Jones and the team that they’ll be working incredibly hard to protect services against the odds, and to make sure that we maintain civic pride.”
Cooper, who is MP for St Albans, is also the Liberal Democrat’s treasury spokesperson.
Questioned about the government’s current fairer funding consultation that could see Wokingham borough missing out on up to £50 million of funding over the next three years, she said: “If the government doesn’t change course, then effectively what they’re proposing is simply moving the pain of chronic underfunding from one local area to another.
We know that local government across the country has been chronically underfunded for years and years, and they are just shifting that pain from one area to another.
“That will leave local councils in a completely invidious position where they will have absolutely no choice but to stick council tax up, because that is only that’s really one of the only taxes that local authorities have in terms of their tax-raising powers, unlike central government, which can raise taxes in lots of different ways.
“When you look at the government’s recent spending review a couple of months ago, it had already built in assumptions that local authorities were going to put their council tax up to the maximum amount.
“And now we’re looking at this so-called fairer funding formula, which suggests that councils will have to put it up even further, so I think people are going to be incredibly alarmed by this.
“I think every local council is going to really struggle because, we know that in places like Wokingham, there are huge pressures on social care, there are huge pressures on special educational needs, and huge pressures on road budgets.
“It’s really important that our councils can get fair funding.”,
Asked whether she feels the government may look to change its position on funding, she said: “Time will tell.
“If you look at how the Labour government has operated over the last year, there have been a number of examples where it has performed a u-urn.
“On the other hand there are examples, such as the absolutely hated jobs tax, which is really killed-off economic growth, where the government has stuck to its guns, and has continued regardless, and irrespective of both the warnings and the consequences that have arisen since.
“So, it’s really quite hard to call it. What I would say is that the government has at least put this out to consultation, and if it is serious about listening, then hopefully it will take on board the comments that it gets.
“You can bet your bottom dollar that Clive here in Wokingham, and Liberal Democrats more broadly, will be speaking up for local government and the importance of protecting local services, particularly in social care and for special educational needs and disabilities services.”
