I have had a few emails from constituents repeating Lib Dem claims that Wokingham gets little or no government funding and is short of money to spend.
The IFS has recently published a study of spending per head on five main service areas, including local government and schools. This combines government grants and local revenues.
The table beneath shows Wokingham in second place after West Berkshire amongst local areas:
Place Schools per head Local government per head total
West Berkshire £941 £881 £1822
Wokingham £892 £844 £1736
Bracknell £ 879 £783 £1662
Reading £831 £803 £1634
Hampshire £797 £796 £1593
Windsor and M £873 £682 £1555
These figures show that Wokingham is not treated badly or without money in the way the council has been saying. I have made the case for better funding for social services and schools in Wokingham and am pleased to see the government has increased the financial support it offers.
August 23, 2023
I’ve only recently signed up for the WBC news letters and was surprised how political they are, always mentioning the lack of funds from Government and always as an excuse to levy more taxes on the locals.
August 31, 2023
Note the statement: “This combines government grants and local revenues.”
Combined income says nothing about how the income is divided across the two sources. Having those two sources broken out into separate sources would be far more informative, but perhaps less politically convenient.