At the end of last year, Wokingham Borough Council had its second local government finance settlement under a Labour Government, confirming our council is significantly worse off now under Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. Wokingham will have its funding cut by £43 million over three years, while money gets redirected to other areas. Meanwhile, Wokingham Borough’s Liberal Democrat administration appears to be doing very little to challenge the Government.
While most of the Council’s spending comes from Council Tax and charges paid directly by local residents, it also depends on funding directly from the Government in London. Yet, since Labour came to power, they’ve decided the essential funding Wokingham Borough receives should be sent to other areas who already get large sums of money from Whitehall. The previous Conservative Government increased our funding by £2.3 million for 2024 - 25. Yet, less than 6 months after the General Election, Labour cut it by £1 million. This time, Labour are slashing Wokingham Borough’s funding by £43 million over the next 3 years.
This means the Council Tax paid by all of us will have to increase by the maximum 4.99%. Let’s not forget Labour promised in 2023 they would freeze Council Tax. Despite this increase, the money available for the Council to spend on essential services, funded by Council Tax and Government grants will only increase by 1.07% - below the current rate of inflation and made worse by the increases in employers’ National Insurance and the minimum wage. The rest will be redistributed to other areas of the country.
Where in all this is Wokingham Borough’s Liberal Democrat administration? Manning the barricades and loudly shouting for change, surely?
Well, no. When the Conservatives were in Government, the Liberal Democrats organised a public letter writing campaign to the responsible Government minister. Now Labour are in power, barely anything has been heard from them. The Council’s Leader has been telling residents that Liberal Democrat ‘lobbying’ has reduced the original funding reduction from £47 million to £43 million. That difference of £4 million represents just 2% of the Council's core spending power, a tiny figure, and rather ignores the remaining £43 million still being cut.
The Liberal Democrats’ Executive Member in charge of finance said before the election “everyone is hoping there’ll be a change of government and there’ll be a proper look at how councils are funded.” Presumably your funding being slashed by a combined £43 million wasn’t what she had in mind.
With all these pressures, you’d think the Liberal Democrats would be trying to squeeze every one of the Council’s pennies. Instead, they continue to waste money hand over fist. £1 million has already been squandered on planning a housing scheme at Toutley East that will never happen. Council property has sat empty for over two years, instead of generating a rental income. Flats at Carnival Pool, meant to generate a profit of £1.4 million are now set to lose £1.3 million thanks to delays and mismanagement.
When the Conservatives ran the Council, we had the courage to challenge Governments all of parties – Conservative, Coalition and Labour – and stick up for our Borough. Wokingham needs that again, as well as a party in power spending money wisely, in line with residents’ priorities.