Wokingham’s Liberal Democrat led Council always claims it gets a very low grant from the government and is left to struggle , forcing it to make cuts in spending.
This was not what the independent IFS thought in their review. Looking at the 2022/23 budget figures they concluded that “No local government in England receives more funding to carry out its services relative to needs than Wokingham Borough Council. ” They calculated from comparisons that Wokingham got £261 per head more in grants than its needs.
Core spending power per head is the highest of all Berkshire Councils apart from Slough, and is up 63% since 2019. So there should be no excuse for poor services and no reason to claim they are underfunded.
Nor does the Councillor pleading of poverty reflect what the Council does, as it is making large increases in spending, specialising in wasteful projects and unwanted and risky investments in energy and property.
When the former Leader of the Council Mr Jones said the “government has reduced funding for Wokingham Borough Council by £ 1m” it is difficult to see this figure in the accounts, and it is a very small figure in relation to total spending and total grants. He also thought social care took up 60% of the Council’s allocation. He seems to have missed out schools and education in its entirety to get to this odd figure.
Wokingham has not filed accounts for 2024/5 yet. The 2023/4 annual figures showed total spending of £427 m , up by £53 m or 12.5% on the previous year. Total grants came to £198.7m or 46% of expenditure. There was an additional £93 m of direct government funding of Academies in the area. Schools at 28% of the budget or £120 m was the biggest single spending area, with a Schools grant of £90 m. The Council had £84 m of S 106 developer contribution payments at its disposal. It was “investing” £36.5m within a capital programme costing £73 m.
The Lib Dem Councillors should read the accounts and seek to manage the money better. Their public statements imply they either do not understand the large sums they are handling, or wish to suppress wider knowledge of just how much they spend. I will look at how all this money could be better managed in future postings. I have highlighted before the kind of waste they go in for. There was the £5.5m changes to a roundabout, strenuously opposed by local residents, that entailed painting coloured leaves all over the road. There is the “investment” in a solar farm.
Around the country there is a lack of informed debate about the huge sums Councils control and spend, what they get for all that money and how they could spare the taxpayers some of their large demands upon them.Instead we are told every year there are cuts, when the budgets keep ballooning and the Council tax soars.