Cuts to government funding for Wokingham will increase the burden on local taxpayers and put more pressure on local services

Clive Jones, MP for Wokingham, met with Local Government Minister Jim McMahon to discuss the draft local government proposals for next year, in which the Government has reduced funding for Wokingham Borough Council by £1m. This is despite the Government recognising the growing demand for adult social care and special educational needs in the borough, which comprise the majority of the council’s costs. 

The Minister said that the Government wanted to address ‘system failures’ that were driving these costs and was not willing to ask for more money from the Treasury for hard pressed councils. He expected councils such as WBC to raise the additional money from local taxpayers in the interim, with the assumption that government initiatives will eventually drive these costs down. 

Commenting on the meeting Clive Jones, the MP for Wokingham, said: 
“Wokingham has received the lowest government funding per person for years and local services are under immense pressure. 

“The Government’s insistence on allocating funding on the basis of arbitrary measures of deprivation, rather than the demand and cost of providing council services, will ramp up the pressure further. 

“The Government is giving the council no option other than to increase council tax by the maximum allowed, and to find further savings in the delivery of local services, to cover the ever-inflating cost of essential services such as social care and education.”