Wokingham borough council has revealed it has received our worst government funding deal ever, and is facing the loss of more than £40 million in financial support over the next three years.
Despite calls for a better deal backed by thousands of residents, the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026–29, which sets out how much financial support councils receive, means a stark reduction in our funding.
A spokesperson said: “This will have an immense impact on the council’s position.”
The provisional settlement is for three years. and will get worse for us during that period.
Next year, Wokingham’s government (non-council tax) funding will reduce by 17.8% – (a reduction of about £6.6 million).
By the third year of the settlement, Wokingham said it will have lost £43.6 million of government funding in total.
The settlement comes after the government consulted on changes to how local councils are funded (the Fair Funding Review 2.0).
Wokingham borough council used the consultation to call for a minimum annual increase of 4% for all councils with adults and children’s services responsibilities, protecting those worst affected and to be fairer.
More than 3,000 residents backed calls and many other councils made similar points.
But the government has not introduced this funding floor ‘safety net, and although it made some concessions to the way it calculates funding, the overall result is largely unchanged for Wokingham.
Full details are set out in the chief finance officer’s report in the agenda for the council’s executive meeting this week..
Wokingham has the lowest level of core government funding (Core Spending Power excluding council tax) in England.
To put this into context, Blackpool City Council gets six times the funding per head that Wokingh\m receives – £168 compared to £1,050 per head.
“If we received funding in line with Blackpool, we would have an extra £160 million every year, and if funded, at the average funding level for a unitary, a council which provides all services, we would benefit by about £71 million per year.
This is due to the way the government decides how much each council gets, which is based mainly on deprivation rather than what it costs the council to meet the needs of the community.
“We do not believe the government fully takes account of our costs in some of the higher spend areas,such as supporting children with special educational needs or helping adults who have physical disabilities or learning difficulties.
“These are not as directly linked to deprivation and so we don’t believe they are considered properly by the government.”
“Although we’ve made savings or generated increased income of more than £30.6 million in the past three years, we need to reduce spending and raise income further. This will impact on some services and what we must charge for certain things.
“We will continue to make the best use of staff and technology to reduce costs, but will need to change services as well.
“ We will consult and engage with residents as we make the necessary changes to reduce impact on you.
“We will set our budget for 2026/27 at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, February 28.”
