Charlotte Haitham Taylor has been Leader of Wokingham Borough Conservatives for almost a year. Here she outlines her vision for the future
UNLIKE the opposition parties, the Conservatives have a record to defend. At the same time, they also have their own vision of the future, with policies for the borough including a new rent to buy scheme.
However the election goes on May 3, come May 4 the Conservatives will still
be in charge of Wokingham. Does that mean that Cllr Haitham Taylor is complacent?
“You can never be complacent about anything,” she says. “You always have to be really ambitious about what you want to achieve for your residents, but there’s much more that we can do and there’s still many areas that need so much more, and deserve so much more.
“Everyone always labels Wokingham as a really wealthy, affluent area, but there are many people that are really struggling on a day-to-day basis.
“You have to be ambitious for all of our families and make sure that we are absolutely delivering the absolute best that we can in all of our services. I think, as a Conservative administration we’re doing well but we always have to be constantly pushing to see if we can do even better.”
Some residents complain that the administration is out of touch and doesn’t respond to messages from residents. Cllr Haitham Taylor disputes this.
“There are a lot of emails that are coming in. Everybody is trying their hardest to be as responsive as possible.
“I think that we’ve got a really great team of councillors and there’s an immense challenge to try and address all of the issues we’ve got at the moment because we are a Borough that is going through so much change. All of the things that we’re doing though, for example, building new roads, investing in new leisure centres, building new schools, all of this change means that there will be bumps along the way and things don’t always go right.
“It does mean that residents will send a lot of emails and they won’t be happy about some of the things when they aren’t going right. We’re investing more than we’ve ever done in roads, for example, at the moment, and that means that a lot of them are shut while the roadworks are going on.”
And with the regeneration, Cllr Haitham Taylor wants residents to look to the end result.
“I know that the town centre is one of the things that a lot of residents have, on the doorsteps, mentioned an awful lot. But when you get down to the detail
and explain that you’re investing in the town centre so that it won’t die and it will be there for future generations, and explain all the amazing things that will be here in the future, new spaces for the market and for entertainment in Elms Field, they’re all actually quite excited about it.”
Building homes is another big issue of this campaign. Residents and councillors alike have been frustrated at the Government’s stance on housing numbers, while the Borough Council is also concerned with the reduction in funding from Central Government.
“If current plans continue, WBC will be sending money to the Government rather than receiving grants per resident.
Cllr Haitham Taylor feels that her team are doing very well.
“I think we really punch above our weight,” she said.
“When I talk to other Leaders around the country and look at what they’re doing, what they’re investing in and what they deliver, I think we stand head and shoulders above them, but it is increasingly difficult to do what we do and do it well in the context of how much funding we do get. It’ll be even harder next year when we get no Government grant.”
It is something that she is pushing the Government about.
With Theresa May being a constituency MP for parts of Wokingham, as well as Prime Minister, does that help the Borough’s case?
“It’s a great benefit that we do have the Prime Minister here, representing part of our Borough. In that regard it is really helpful,” Cllr Haitham Taylor said.
“We’ve been able to walk her through what our financial situation is. We’ve talked her through what a negative Government grant means for us. We talked her through the demands in adult social care and children’s social care as they are at the moment.
“We talked her through some of the scenarios of what we could do locally here in terms of a pilot as well, to be financially independent from Central Government.”
But is she listening?
“I hope that by having her as Prime Minister, we will get our voice heard in central government,” Cllr Haitham Taylor said.
The “Rent to Buy” scheme is a big policy from the Conservatives in this local election.
“I think that on the doorsteps it’s been really well received,” Cllr Haitham Taylor said.
“We’ve done a lot over the last few years with regards to building new houses, new affordable houses in particular. Our own housing company, Wokingham Housing Limited, has been really successful in delivering new, affordable homes.
“There are many other people out there who just could not get on the housing ladder, and there’s a whole missed generation essentially who may always be on the rental market and continue to do that because they can’t afford to save up for a deposit.
“Our ambition is that we introduce the “Rent toBuy” scheme, which will enable them by spending what they would have spent normally on rent and us taking a lower percentage of that towards council rent. The margin above that will go into savings for a deposit to buy their own home.”
So why should people vote Conservative on Thursday, May 3?
“I think we’ve got a really strong message of what we have delivered in the past and what we continue to do, and we do it well.
“We do it well, it’s value for money. We’ve got a sound record of achievement, and I think we’ve got some really strong policies that deliver for all residents right across the borough.”
