The potential for Reading to expand into its suburbs to create a larger council has been put under government review following months of debate.
The Labour government has undertaken a review of how local government works, and is requiring county councils to be abolished.
This has meant Oxfordshire County Council is set to be reorganised into Oxford and the Shires Council and Ridgeway Council, made up of South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse.
But in a surprise move last year, West Berkshire Council announced that it wanted to join Ridgeway Council.
The existing councils which would make up Ridgeway are all controlled by Liberal Democrats.
West Berkshire covers Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford, the surrounding villages and the Reading suburbs of Tilehurst Parish, Calcot and Theale.
To counter that, the Labour administration at Reading Borough Council submitted a counter proposal to the government to create a ‘Greater Reading’ incorporating its western suburbs.
Jeff Brooks (Liberal Democrats, Thatcham West), leader of the West Berkshire Council, called the counter proposal a ‘hostile attack’ and an ‘unsolicited attempt at a land grab’.
The request to the government to create a Greater Reading council was debated at an extraordinary meeting of the borough council.
Addressing cllr Brooks’ allegations, Liz Terry (Labour, Coley), the council leader, said:“This was a feeble attempt to mislead people from the real reason for wanting to join Oxfordshire’s reorganisation.
“His council is struggling financially and cannot afford to provide services without the £16 million exceptional financial support it had to ask for from the government.
“It is clear to see the real reason for joining forces with South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse, it is to spare his blushes as his council faces a weakening position.”
Reading council initially requested all of Tilehurst, Theale and Pangbourne to be incorporated.
However, that was revised down to Tilehurst Parish, Holybrook Parish and Purley Parish.
The main concern of opposition councillors was the potential financial implications.
Tilehurst parishes contributed £29.8 million to West Berkshire Council resources in 2025/26, and cost it £30.6 million, leaving a Greater Reading council with a potential net cost of £800,000.
Rob White (Green, Park), the leader of the opposition, pointed out that there could be hidden costs on top of that, and asked whether the government could pay to support the transition.
He said: “As this whole saga started from a top-down reorganisation from the Labour government, Greens think it is only fair that the Labour government funds some of these costs for Reading council, and we hope that the leader of the council will be lobbying hard and fighting Reading’s corner on this.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats welcomed the news that residents in Tilehurst would be able to keep the existing parish councils, but raised concerns about the costs.
Cllr Anne Thompson (Liberal Democrats, Tilehurst) called the current boundaries ‘outdated’, stating that it made much more sense for Reading Borough to end at Sulham Woods, which she called ‘a natural boundary’.
However, she said that the Liberal Democrats would abstain from the vote as no local referendum has been offered to people in Tilehurst on local government reorganisation.
Cllr Raj Singh (Conservative, Kentwood) pointed out that residents in the Tilehurst parishes could experience sharp increases in their council taxes.
In a vote, Labour and Greens voted for the Greater Reading council proposal, Conservatives voted against it, and the Lib Dems abstained.
The result gave cllr Terry the authority to write to the Ministry of Local Government to request the creation of Greater Reading if the proposal to create Ridgeway Council is approved.
The debate took place at the council meeting on November 25, 2025.
