Residents across Wokingham Borough will see their council tax rise to 4.99 per cent next year.
But Wokingham Borough council has been able to avoid swinging cuts and use money it has invested to keep building up local infrastructure.
Wokingham is one of the wealthiest single tier local authorities in the country and its funding from the government has been heavily cut, meaning that it had to raise the Council Tax to cover the shortfall, and still had less money to spend.
Wokingham residents are particularly hit due to a government calculation called the ‘Fairer Funding Formula’.
The new formula gives more money to areas with high deprivation and lower property values.
By contrast, affluent authorities in the south east, seen as having a high “revenue-raising capacity” via council tax, like Wokingham, have had their central government grants slashed.
At their budget meeting on Thursday, February 25, councillors from different parties made speeches complaining about the formula which took more money from Wokingham and gave it to less fortunate areas of the country.
But the Liberal Democrat administration was bullish about the achievements it was able to make in spite of the squeeze on its budget.
They pointed to investments they were able to make in a new sixth form at Emmbrook school, special schools, a school in Spencer’s Wood, family hubs, community hubs and a new footbridge in Earley.
There was also a lot of discussion of £18m of investment in an additional solar farm, beyond the solar farm at Barkham which is awaiting a commitment from the National Grid to connect it.
A big part of the squeeze to Wokingham’s budget was the loss of income from business rates. A few years ago, 25 per cent of the rates collected from Wokingham businesses were given back to the council. Now it’s only 6 per cent.
According to Cllr Marc Ashwell, Wokingham collects £100m in business rates, but £94m of those are ‘redistributed’ to other parts of the country.
So the council has had to find £30m of savings in the last three years.
The Conservatives wanted to see more money spent on Wokingham’s potholes, and in bringing residents into the town centre. They would give each resident one hour of free parking in the town’s car parks.
Conservative leader Pauline Jorgensen told those present that the Labour Government was punishing Wokingham. She said: “Labour are slashing Wokingham Borough’s funding by a further £43 million over the next 3 years.”
Labour leader Rachel Burgess said the Lib Dems had delivered a budget of contradictions but that the government had given the Liberal Democrat authority more certainty and the local team would have more money available over the next three years.
She said: “The funding settlement provides certainty for the next three years – as this is the first multi-year settlement in over a decade. The total revenue available to fund services, including Council Tax – is forecast to rise over the next three years.”
The council leader Stephen Conway (Lib Dem) agreed that there was certainty in the settlement awarded by the government, but asserted that it was a bad settlement.
However he professed to be astonished by the “unremittingly negative” speech from the Conservative leader, Pauline Jorgensen.
He said: “They attack even on matters that they once supported or initiated.”
