FROM THE LEADER: Preparing for Wokingham’s budget

By Cllr Clive Jones

As I write this, I am preparing for Thursday evening’s budget meeting, at which the council sets the budget for 2023/24.

There are three features to this year’s budget of which I am proud.

First, it’s a sound and prudent budget.

When we took over the council in May 2022, we inherited an ongoing budget shortfall of £2.3m from April 2023, which was covered in this current year by the Conservatives with a raid on the councils’ general fund reserve.

We rapidly found out about further costs that had been unfunded or underfunded by the previous administration in their budget set this time last year.

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I am glad to report that, working with council officers to review all expenditure and income, we eliminated that in-year deficit.

And, despite the enormous financial pressures caused by double-digit inflation, rising demand for services, significant shortfalls in anticipated income, and rising interest rates that increased the cost of the council’s borrowing, we have been able to produce a balanced revenue and capital budget for the year ahead.

We have done this without dipping into the general fund balance, or general reserves, from which our predecessors took nearly £2.3 million last year to cover on-going expenditure.

By contrast, we have actually put some money back into the general reserves for 2023-24, thus improving our general reserves and putting them in a healthier state than we found them last May.

Given the number of councils that have effectively gone bankrupt over the last year, this is no mean achievement.

All the more so, because Wokingham receives the smallest amount of support from central government of any unitary authority in the country – for the coming year our increase in funding from the government was a mere £1.8 million when we have had to find some £26 million to cover inflation of £11 million and the increased cost of vital services for our community. An extra £6.3 million has had to be found for Children’s Services and £3.6 million for Adult Social Care.

Second, this is a forward-looking budget.

All too often, councils take the short-term view, looking forward no further than the next election. We have sought to look much further ahead and have invested now to generate savings in the future.

This is true of our investment in Climate Change initiatives and also in planning for school places. It also informs our approach to reviewing all contracts to make sure they are providing value for money and to find ways to extract savings through new IT systems that enable us to manage contracts more easily.

Third, this is a compassionate budget.

We have sought to focus help where it is most needed. We are earmarking 1% of the council tax increase to children’s services, especially to help with improving SEND (Special Educational needs) provision. We are earmarking 2% of the increase to adult services, where it will support members of our community with significant day-to-day challenges that make life a struggle.

We have also:

put more money in the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, to help those struggling to pay their Council Tax
put more into the funds available to enable the Hardship Alliance of the council and local charitable and voluntary bodies to help those experiencing hardship during the current cost-of-living crisis
found money to continue subsidising much-needed bus services in the borough for the next three years
kept the council rent increase down to below the government cap.

When times are tough, it’s right and proper that those who need the help most should be our priority. Under this administration they are.

Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and Lib Dem member for Hawkedon ward