In 2015-16 Wokingham BoroughCouncil plans to spend £268 million on services. 30% of this will be paid for by Council taxpayers, and over half will be paid for out of national taxes through government grants. The remainder comes from rents, car park charges and other revenue. There will also be additional capital spending, paid for out of a mixture of loans, government grants and planning gains paid to the Council for new facilities.
Wokingham receives a relatively low level of grants compared to the local government average. I have been pursuing the question of the large gap between the best and worst funded schools nationally with Ministers. Wokingham along with similar authorities gets less grant per pupil, as the last two governments have wished to weight education grant more heavily in favour of places with a high incidence of poverty and special needs.
In recent years Wokingham has done better on the capital spending front, gaining more permissions to spend, and collecting substantial money from planning gains as well as some money from government grants. Given the pace of development in Wokingham, it is a priority to get Wokingham a fair deal on access to cash and permissions,so the necessary roads, schools and other faciltiies can be put in to cater for the new homes, and to catch up on the backlog from the previous decade when Wokingham did badly on government support.
Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy on behalf of John Redwood, both of 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU