Cllr Chris Cooke asked Cllr Stephen Conway, the leader of the council: “Would he share an update on efforts to persuade the government to reconsider its plans to redirect nearly £50 million in funding that would otherwise have come to Wokingham over the next three years?
Cllr Conway said: “I can assure you that considerable efforts have been made by this council to raise our concerns over the potential impact of the Fair Funding review and given the magnitude of the issue, as leader of the council, I have been personally much involved in this process of trying to get our message across.
“Our endeavours to date have included: writing to the 56 Tier 1 local authorities we believe will also lose out.
“Tier 1, just in case anyone is unaware, are authorities that provide adults and children’s social care as part of their responsibilities.
“We are seeking to get the support of those 56 other Tier 1 local authorities to influence their respective formal consultation response and seek their support for our approach which is to try and get the government to agree to a 4% Floor – that is a 4% minimum increase in core spending power per annum.
“[I have also been] engaging with our MPs, who have both sought to raise the issue at government level and have been lobbying on our behalf. I have sent letters to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, to give it its full title, including the new Secretary of State, Steve Reed.
“Meetings have also been held with the Local Government Authority, which I now believe is shifting its position to support no real terms cuts in core spending, and we believe that would need to be in the region of around 4%.
“We have submitted our comprehensive formal response to the Government clearly setting out the defects in the proposed approach and reinforcing the need for a 4% floor.
“This was all made public and agreed by Cllr Imogen Shepherd-Dubey through an Individual Executive Member Decision.
“And in addition to this we have commissioned a specialist organisation to build upon all this work and to provide a unified position around a 4% floor, which is our aim.”
Cllr Cook asked: “Is there a role for our voluntary and charitable sector partners in this campaign?”
Cllr Conway said: “I think there is a role for all sorts of partners, not just the voluntary and charitable sector partners.
“I would welcome support from wherever I can get it.
“I would welcome support from our partners in the voluntary and charitable sector, in business, all of those bodies with which we interact, and will be affected by a significant reduction in our funding.
“I would welcome the support of the other parties on the Council also. But on your specific point about the voluntary and charitable sector,I recently spoke with the Voluntary Sector Action Group to explain what the government proposals would mean if they were not altered, and I am delighted to say that the organisations present volunteered to write in to support our position.
“So, I think that there is, out there, significant support for our trying to persuade the government to moderate the approach that they are adopting and avoid councils, any council, getting into extreme difficulties.
“My belief is that if the government persists with an unaltered set of proposals, there will be significant consequences for many councils.
“We are in a relatively fortunate position in Wokingham in having managed our finances very sensibly and well over many years.
“I think we are in a fortunate position but, even here, there would be unpalatable decisions we would have to make if the government does not moderate its way forward.
“Other councils could face much worse than that. It is entirely possible that the government could face a demand for additional money to support councils that are about to fall over, and that would outweigh any benefit that they are getting from saving by not increasing the overall pot for local government.”
