Wokingham Borough Council’s Chief Financial Officer has said that the Council’s Finances were in good shape under the previous Conservative administration.
This has been confirmed in an appendix of The Chief Finance Officer’s Report to the Council’s Executive which was discussed on Thursday 26th January 2023 by the Leader of the Council and his Liberal Democrat colleagues.
This sounds like good news, but the Liberal Democrats criticised the previous Conservative administration for having used some of the Council’s reserves to support residents and businesses during the pandemic.
The report sets out how the Council’s financial resilience compares on an index highlighting key financial indicators such as reserves sustainability, external debt, and social care ratios. In 2020 Wokingham was rated in the top 20 for financial sustainability by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy.
The most recent data published for 2020-21, under the Conservatives, shows an even further improved position on indicators of financial stress, such as maintaining or improving reserves and the cost of social care as a proportion of total expenditure compared to other local authorities. Demonstrating that the previous Conservative administration’s stewardship of the Council’s finances was better than a number of other Councils during the difficult pandemic period.
This of course is entirely at odds with the lines trotted out by the Liberal Democrats and their Labour Coalition partners, in the run-up to last May’s election and now. The idea that the Council is in grave financial danger seems to pepper the Council’s communications, well… liberally.
The report also says, “the Council has worked over many years on the highest standards of financial management”.
This doesn’t sound like the dire straits the Liberal Democrats claim they found the Council’s finances in.
Furthermore, in the Summer the Council’s Audit Committee found that investments by the previous Conservative administration had delivered a strong financial return for taxpayers. At that time there was a net financial benefit of £22.25 per household after borrowing costs have been taken into account and Wokingham Town Centre regeneration had created £249 million worth of assets from only £72 million of debt.
The Liberal Democrats regularly claim that they have no choice but to make “difficult decisions”, such as doubling car park charges, because the financial situation leaves them with no other option. Undoubtedly there have been financial challenges that have affected local authorities nationwide, like the war in Ukraine, which few could have predicted, and has caused supply chain difficulties and energy prices to increase.
However, as this report demonstrates, compared to other councils, Wokingham has been better placed than most to meet these challenges thanks to careful financial management over the past 20 years of previous Conservative administrations. Conservatives, for example, had the foresight to set aside £ 7.5 million for inflation in this year’s budget although the Liberal Democrats don’t seem to mention that either.
Predictably, this narrative regarding the Council’s financial health is being laid in the run-up to the Council’s Budget, where the Liberal Democrat/Labour Coalition will hike resident’s Council tax bills by the maximum increase while doubling charges for town centre car parks and extending charging hours at evenings and weekends.
Over two decades Conservative administrations were able to make savings without reducing services, for example we were able to maintain weekly waste collections. This took careful management as well as experience, something the Lib Dems lack.
But whilst they plead poverty look to where they are spending money.
So far, they have found cash to pay for hiring expensive consultants and they have rejected moving to full Council elections, instead of the current system of elections by-thirds, which officers estimated would save the Council £4 million over the four-year period.
The reality is that they do have choices, yet unfortunately they seem to make the wrong ones.
Cllr Stuart Munro is a Conservative ward member for Swallowfield
