A clash over the successes and failures of Reading Borough Council has taken place as politicians debated the council’s multi-million pound budget.
Throughout the year, the council’s financial performance is monitored based on the budget that is set in March.
The budget for 2024/25, the current financial year, ends in March this year.
The council’s director of finance has reported a projected £18.115 million overspend. Although £8.495 million of savings have been found, it is still left with a £9.620 million overspend.
The council’s financial performance was debated at a policy committee meeting.
Councillor Rob White (Green, Park), the leader of the opposition, said: “Green councillors are concerned about the forecast £18 million budget overspend.
“It’s good to see the recovery plan is bringing this down to £9.6 million but this is still a very large number.
“We are also concerned about the strong possibility of yet another 4.99 per cent council tax increase in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
“Funding from government is clearly not enough, and demand is going up, up and away.
“We’ve just endured 14 years of Conservative austerity, and it looks like we’re going straight into Labour austerity.
“Green councillors will keep up the pressure for the council to do better.”
In reply, John Ennis, lead councillor for climate strategy and transport, said it was ‘absolutely correct’ to point out the problems the council faces, but argued it was also good to balance that with successes the council had achieved.
An example he gave was new council buildings in Reading complying to Passivhaus standards for energy efficiency and comfort.
Cllr Ennis (Labour, Southcote) said: “A lot of them [the successes] are ones which I would have thought the Green Party would be interested in, but they don’t seem to be that interested anymore in the environment, they seem to be doing other things, so I thought I’d point them out.”
He then argued that the council is ‘the best landlord in Reading’ and has invested in bus services, which has involved winning £4.7 million from the government’s zero emissions bus regional area scheme to buy 24 electric buses.
Cllr Ennis then mentioned The Hexagon theatre upgrade project, an investment of £13.7 million.
He said: “The Hexagon is a challenge, but we will be the first council in the country to do the heat sourcing for a leisure facility, no other council is doing that, and we should welcome that.
“We should also welcome the tough stance we are taking on delivering zero carbon initiatives, including heat pumps in our own offices, and also the work with solar panels and the net zero, we are still one of the best councils in the country.
“We will be pushing where most other places and other governments are forgoing the question of net zero reductions by 2030, we are still there, it’s a difficult challenge, we don’t have to do it but we are determined to go forward.”
The policy committee noted the financial performance of the council during a meeting on December 18, 2024.
A consultation on the proposed budget for 2025/26 is live on the Go Vocal consultation website.
A redesign of The Hexagon will be decided by the council’s planning applications committee on January 8.
