I really hope that our new government makes the changes that this country needs. I was very disappointed that there was nothing in the Kings speech to help local councils.
Its going to be very difficult to fix things like the NHS if you don’t fix what happens when people leave the hospital – which is a large part of what we call Adult Social Care. They want us to build more housing, but where is the extra funding that we need for GP’s, hospitals, roads, schools and policing coming from?
Nearly 70% of your Council tax is spent on looking after adults and children. New housing does not pay enough, up front, for the services that new residents really need. All Councils are under significant financial pressure and inflationary costs mean it is difficult to predict what funding is needed over the year. Council Tax rises are limited to 4.99%, with a 2% of this dedicated to Adut Social Care only. Overall, this is well is below inflation, which meant that last year, Wokingham Borough Council had to make internal savings of £11.6M from its budget.
An additional example of one of the services we support is buses and public transport. These are all very reliant on local Council funding in order to survive. For instance, every trip taken with a senior bus pass requires a sum of money to be paid by the local council to the bus company. Some parts of Wokingham Borough get no bus services at all or a barely functional service, but we cannot improve these services without investment and additional funding from somewhere.
We are not alone with our problems and all of the Councils around us are looking at significant overspends over the last few years on basic services. Wokingham, in relative terms, is really doing quite well. However, ALL Councils are just crying out for help, just to keep treading water. As it stands, the amount of government funding that Wokingham Borough residents get from our government per resident, is significantly less that most councils. The calculation takes in no allowances for how many people we need to look after and what their needs are.
Wokingham Borough Council had an overspend of £1.8M. last year – we were able to cover this deficit from our reserves, but we cannot keep on going, just as we are. We must raise our income and make significant efficiencies. This unfortunately also means that there is no choice but to put up fees and charges as well as Council Tax, all of which must, of course, stay below inflationary levels. We will try our best to reduce the impact on our most vulnerable and low income residents and keep the services for those that need it the most.
In addition to being a Councillor, I do also work full time and I would be happy to pay more tax, if I could get a Doctors appointment when I needed it and that I could have confidence that ambulance, fire and police and other essential services will also be there for everyone who needs it.
At the moment, I don’t think our new Labour government has quite got to grips with the scale of what has to be done to fix public services – but what I do know is that most people want our public services to be fixed and to work for the benefit of all of us.
Imogen Shepherd-DuBey is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Emmbrook South
