In a U-turn that benefits the borough, the council is due to secure £2.1m additional funding from central Government according to two of its four MPs.
Just before Christmas, in our print edition, we revealed that the Government’s grant settlement for the next financial year would see Wokingham Borough Council hit harder than other local authorities, leaving it to find an additional £2m of savings in the next financial year.
The reduction was due to be in addition to the £4m of cuts that it spent months consulting on, including roadshow presentations where members of the public were invited to have their say on the plans.
However, following pressure on the Conservative Government from its own MPs, a transitional relief system will be applied to Wokingham Borough Council, giving it back the £2m that was removed from them before Christmas.
Eearlier this evening Reading East MP Rob Wilson – whose constituency includes parts of Wokingham borough including Woodley and Earley, revealed in a tweet that MPs had secured additional money for the council.
Rob Wilson tweeted:
Good news for Wokingham BC as MPs secure extra funding in Local Government Settlement.
— Rob Wilson (@RobWilson_RDG) February 8, 2016
On the Earley Conservatives Facebook page, a comment from Wokingham MP John Redwood revealed more.
He wrote: “Following my representations for a transitional relief system and Wokingham’s own submission, I asked the Secretary of State today what action he is taking to help us in his revised settlement.
“He told me the new transitional relief system he has agreed to introduce will give Wokingham £2.1m more than the provisional settlement.”
Wokingham Borough Council’s budget is due to be revealed later this week. We’ll have full insight and analysis in Friday’s Wokingham Paper.
