Wokingham is losing out compared with other communities in the support it receives from central government, and its leaders aren’t happy.
Last week, the Council made a formal protest to demand a better settlement.
Wokingham is seen as a prosperous Borough but some of the costs it faces, like adult and children’s social care and giving extra support for SEND children, are just as high as anywhere else.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that people in Wokingham are ‘less deprived’ than 90 per cent of Britain, with residents ranking in the lowest decile for deprivation in health, income, employment, education and skills.
The priorities of different governments always create ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ up and down the country and according to leader Stephen Conway, Wokingham has become one of the losers in terms of funding.
He says we’re already one of the lowest funded unitary authorities per head of population, but the money that the government pays to our borough is set to drop by another 43 million over the next three years.
The borough has a big ‘dedicated schools grant’ deficit, and before the government’s announcement Monday of extra cash, Wokingham’s deficit was expected to rise to £100m by 2028.
This makes it difficult for the council to plan for how to cover its social care obligations and its special needs obligations too.
On January 6, leader Stephen Conway wrote to the Secretary of State, Steve Reed MP, saying: “Your proposed settlement will reduce government funding to our council by more than £40m over the next three years, from a starting point where we are already the lowest Government funded Unitary Authority per head of population.
“This will have a significantly detrimental impact on us and for other local authorities in a similar position and will inevitably create a destabilising effect across the local government community.”
Now his finance lead, Imogen Shepherd-Dubey has made an even bolder move. Last week, she made a so-called ‘Individual executive member decision’ or IEMD formally protesting the situation.
She said: “The ‘fairer’ funding finance settlement is not fair. I don’t see how elderly people, disabled people and children in this borough should be given less funding than needy individuals elsewhere in the country.
“We are committed to supporting those who need our help the most, but the fairer funding formula shouldn’t be the only calculation used to decide what it costs to run essential services for our residents.
“The index of deprivation doesn’t take into account the cost of providing services in this area, including access to housing.
“They’re taking funding away from those adults and children who need most support in our community.”
