By Cllr Clive Jones
I was very hopeful that the budget from Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak last Thursday would have provided Wokingham Borough Council with more cash to help us through the next few years, which are going to be very difficult now that inflation has risen to 11.1%, and looking like it will increase further through next year.
Sadly, I was wrong, there was very little good news for the council and certainly no extra cash.
I was hoping that Wokingham would no longer be the lowest funded local unitary council in the country and that we would get our fair share of cash from the government for the first time in eight years.
It didn’t happen, there wasn’t anything for Wokingham, we are still starved of cash by the Conservative government.
So, no extra cash for Wokingham Borough Council, and not much for our residents either.
The tax burden rises to its highest level since the Second World War, with 34 million people set to be paying more tax.
Someone earning an average £32,300 salary faces an extra £1,645 in tax, energy and fuel costs.
On top of these increases, interest costs for the average mortgage have risen by £500 a month or £6,000 a year since the disastrous Truss-Kwarteng-Redwood budget. Meaning many households in Wokingham will now have £7,500 less to spend in the local economy.
This will have a serious negative impact on Wokingham’s retailers, cafes, pubs and restaurants making it very difficult for some of them to survive.
If any do not survive it will be the fault of the Conservative government and their disastrous handling of the country’s economy.
Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and Lib Dem member for Hawkedon Ward
