Wokingham Borough Council will set a balanced budget later this month. Until recently, such a claim would hardly be newsworthy. All councils are required to set a balanced budget. But we live in extraordinary times of financial pressure for local government, with many councils having become insolvent and surviving on the life-support system of government emergency bail outs.
A balanced budget has been achieved even though 2026-27 will be the first year of a highly unfavourable local government finance settlement. By 2028-29, Wokingham will have lost a significant part of its central government revenue support.
The new funding settlement gives the council more revenue support grants but reduces our retained business rates very sharply. Nearly all the business rates that the council collects now go into central government coffers – a staggering 94%. We are allocated just 6% of local business rates to help support local services. The net result, taking revenue grants and retained business rates together, is a reduction of £43.6 million in our funding by 2028-29.
Tough as the challenge is, we will get through. That Wokingham will be able to set a balanced budget for the coming financial year owes much to our having accumulated a reserve earmarked for just such a difficult situation. We will be releasing some of this reserve over the next three years to soften the blow of losing such a sizeable part of our government support.
But prudent use of available reserves is only part of the reason for our ability to withstand the enormous financial pressure we are under. No less important are the tough decisions to save money or generate extra income that elected councillors have taken over the last three and a half years. While those measures have not always been popular in the short term, they have been necessary for long-term financial viability. They help explain why we are in a stronger position than most councils.
The current administration has also focused on invest-to-save projects that will save money, or generate new income, in the future. Prevention and early intervention, to nip problems in the bud, before they become serious and costly to fix, have been important features of our approach to saving money.
The last three years has seen a relentless drive to improve productivity. A survey by leading local government experts rated Wokingham fifth best in the country in terms of outcomes achieved per pounds spent. We will be striving to be even more efficient in the next three years, deploying all the tools available to us to increase productivity still further.
Another ingredient in our financial resilience has been our commitment to partnerships. Within the council, there is now a much greater sense of partnership between different directorates and departments, and between council officers and elected councillors of the administration. Outside the council, we are building, sustaining, and where necessary repairing external partnerships. The borough council is seeking to work more closely with users of our services, with other councils, with business, with the local voluntary and charitable sector, with faith groups, and with the University of Reading. All these external partners bring knowledge, experience, and in some cases resources – human, material, and financial – that can help increase our collective ability to serve the local community.
The next three years are undoubtedly going to be financially challenging. But our focus is on more than just survival. We want the council to remain ambitious for our community. Sound finances are not an end in themselves; they are a means to an end. We have achieved a lot in the last few years but still have much to do. Only with a solid financial base can we continue our work to improve life for those we are here to serve.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
