THE new budget for Reading is one that has the right balance of prudence and caution, as well as ambition and opportunity.
That’s the view of the leader of Reading Borough Council, Jason Brock.
Last Wednesday, councillors approved the plans for the financial year that starts on April 1, and with it a 2.99% rise in council tax, the smallest for some years.
However, the council can’t carry out long-term planning due to a lack of long-term clarity from the government over the grant it sends not just to Reading, but to every council in the country to help them run vital services, including adult social care.
“I’m really pleased we’ve managed to pass a very ambitious budget that also recognises there are a lot of challenges just around the corner,” he told Reading Today.
Cllr Brock is grateful to the officers who helped prepare the budget.
“Without such sterling officers around the council, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” he said.
“To be utterly candid, we know that back in 2016-17, the council was staring over the financial precipice. Look at how far we’ve come to have a real platform of genuine stability that allows us to make investments around the town, protect our frontline services and enhance them too.
“Compared to the situation that many councils are in, I think we are in a very robust place.”
The Southcote councillor said that he was pleased – and proud – of the council’s plans to help the less fortunate.
“We have, for the very first time, a very targeted programme of work that will allow us to begin to tackle those entrenched inequalities around the town. These have developed after a decade of Tory national government austerity.
“It’s right that we, as a council, will look to do whatever we can to help people who haven’t shared in Reading’s financial and economic success.”
That success has allowed the council to start planning for bigger infrastructure projects including the new leisure centres, the Green Park railway station and the refurbishment of Reading West.
“These are things that people will visually see around the town and I sincerely hope that they will enjoy using them,” he said.
While Cllr Brock is pleased with the success, he is also focused on helping those in need given the current economic climate.
“For me personally, what motivates me the most is work to really tackle these inequalities,” he said.
“Let’s be clear, there really is a cost of living crisis looming, and it is only the government that has access to the full resourses that can properly mitigate it. As a council we will do everything we can, I’m really pleased we’ve enhances our Council Tax support scheme, which will help those on the lowest incomes.”
Other support includes vouchers to help with energy and food costs.
“It is going to be a really difficult period,” he warned. “We are going to need to be very nimble in how we find ways to help people. It will be tough as well.”
He can see other pressures too: the increase in adult social care costs will be a big part of this, affecting not just local authorities, but the NHS as well.
“The NHS wouldn’t have been able to do the fantastic work that they have done from the pandemic, without social care services in local councils up and down the country, enabling them to do that kind of work,” Cllr Brock said.
Making this harder to navigate is the problems local authorities are experiencing with the current government.
“The honest truth is the great majority of council leaders, independent of what party they represent, would tell you this has been one of the most difficult governments to engage with and have a constructive conversation with.
“I understand that Conservative council leaders might have a motivation for saying they have the ear of Whitehall, but from what I hear, I do not believe that to be true.
“The government has, time and time again, treated local councils as though they are nothing more than a local branch of national government, rather than as legitimate and democratic organisations that have a particular insight into their local areas and can deliver things that central government never could.
“So, I think it is really is high time that we start to have a proper conversation nationally, about what we want local government to do and deliver, and how we are going to ensure that it’s properly resourced to do that.”
Hindering him, and his counterparts across England, is the government’s refusal to offer a long-term solution to the local settlement grant – the amount of money it sends each year to councils to help run essential services.
“The government continues to change the goalposts on an almost annual basis, while also at the same time refusing to ever to give us more than a single year’s financial certainty,” he said.
“That makes it tremendously difficult to plan, especially if we want to deliver multi-year projects. We can learn to be innovative in the face of funding cuts if it wasn’t for this fact.”
His message to the government? “Give us a multi-year funding settlement so have certainty and stability. But also give us freedom to deliver the things we know we can deliver. Have a conversayion with us around how we might go about sustainably funding local councils in the future.
“We need to have that conversation.”
This is a view echoed by the Local Government Association. Last month, its chairman Cllr James Jamieson said: “With future years looking challenging, it is crucial that local services have a long-term, sustainable future which gives councils certainty over their funding. This includes the urgent need for clarity from the Government on which local government funding reforms will happen and when.”
The council does have reserves in place as it looks to the immediate future, but Cllr Brock has had to increase council tax.
“Nobody wants a council tax rise, no politician will want to put it up because we know it’s not a popular thing to do,” he said. “However, to ensure we can continue to deliver all the essential frontline services, we have to do it. Remember Reading is responsible for everything from picking up the bins through to strategic transport provision, through to adults and social care.
“Reading needs to have a sustainable financial base to do that.”
That said, Cllr Brock was pleased this year’s increase was below the rate of inflation. “It’s the lowest rise we’ve had in a great many year. I know it’s not going to be popular with residents.
“But really, residents will look around and see all the projects coming to fruition, things like our leisure centres, the free bulky waste collection, investment, an enhanced partnership with the bus company, and think that Reading Borough Council is delivering value for money.”
And with the local elections around the corner, residents will soon be able to use the ballot box to share their verdict.
