Reading council ended the last financial year with a series of multi-million-pound overspends.
Each year, a budget is set for Reading Borough Council to pay for vital services and fund ambitious projects.
This budget is monitored each quarter to ensure it is being complied with and make changes where necessary.
The 2025/26 financial year ended in March, with its final quarter spanning January to March.
A report into the council’s finances for Quarter 4 of 2025/26 showed a £3.115 million overspend for its general fund, which is used to manage a council’s day-to-day income and spending.
This was discussed at a meeting of the council’s policy committee, where the blame game was passed around between the political parties.
Rob White (Green, Park), leader of the main opposition party on the council, said: “There is a £3 million overspend, which is obviously concerning.
“It says to me we’ve had a change of government, and we’re still in the situation where the council is under such severe pressure, year on year, services are having to make cuts, 75 per cent of them were delivered, 25 per cent weren’t.
“It’s just harder and harder for council officers every year.
“If the government were to fund local authorities properly, then that would make life loads easier.”
Cllr Raj Singh (Conservative, Kentwood) referred to the £3.403 million overspend for the council’s Housing Revenue Account, which covers the income and expenditure from managing and maintaining council housing and related landlord services, and is ring‑fenced from the general fund.
Replying to that, Matt Yeo (Labour, Caversham), lead councillor for housing, said: “There has been a lot of work going into the housing repair service.
The emergency repairs that you have to do immediately are at 100 per cent for last month, there is a serious improvement to the housing repair service, but it comes at a cost, and that’s what the overall story is.”
Cllr Singh also highlighted the dedicated schools grant deficit of £46.935 million for public education.
The previous Conservative government was then accused of leading councils into financial difficulties.
Rachel Eden (Labour, Whitley), lead councillor for education, said: “I’m quite astonished that cllr Singh felt he wanted to point that out, given that it was his government that led us to get into this mess in the first place, it is quite unbelievable that every council across the country was put into this position by ministers of the Conservative government.”
Councillors were asked to approve a range of measures to address the overspends.
These included paying for the general £3.115 million overspend using the council’s financial resilience fund and paying for the housing revenue account overspend by drawing from reserves of £9.755 million.
These measures were unanimously approved at the policy committee meeting on Monday, July 13.
