Question:
In October, as part of an interview with the Executive Member for Finance, the Bracknell News said that the Council needed to “find savings or extra income of £15million for its budget next year”. In Wokingham Today, she gave the figures of £11.7m and £13.1m, totalling £24.8m. Yet the MTFP reports presented to Community and Corporate O&S as recently as December say the Council needs to find £20m over 3 years. Which of these figures is correct?
Minutes:
Question
Answer
Thank you, Jackie, for your question.
The answer is that all of the figures you mention are correct but relate to different years and different points in time. The £11.7million is the savings target that was agreed in the 2023/24 budget. The £15million, or more precisely £15.5million is the total savings challenge for the year 2024/25 as reported to Community and Corporate O&S since the end of September. The latest paper despatched to the Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee this week now states a total of £17.3million for 2024/25, so you can clearly see that future savings targets do change and will continue to do so as we live in a world where much of our future is unknown.
If we take the year 2023/24, it had a savings budget of £11.7million and add the full savings challenge of £17.3million for 2024/25 - we actually have a 2 year total of £29million to find, however some of this will need to be met initially from our reserves. The Overview and Scrutiny report goes on to show a further £7.3million savings needed in the year 2025/26, making a staggering £36.3million savings challenge for the 3 years between 2023-26.
As the future is not cast in stone and we cannot predict every event that might affect us, it is still an educated guess that we can plan against, and I would expect these future numbers to fluctuate.
However, these required savings are a huge increase on any previous savings requirement levels, and they reflect the extreme financial challenges this Council has faced since 2023. This is the key issue that this Council should be focused on, not the marginal movements in the calculations, as the stark overall financial situation faced by this Council and many others does not change.
Supplementary Question:
Despite what the Executive Member for Finance said in Wokingham Today, the Council’s core spending power is increasing by £12.4million, 7%, which is more than any other Berkshire authority and more than the average for England. Will she now admit that she has more money to work with than previous Conservative administrations who managed to balance the books and invest in services, where she cannot?
Supplementary Answer:
I am afraid that is rather a ridiculous situation. The core funding has gone up by 7% I will agree, but that amounts to £667,000. We have to find £17.3million next year. The £667,000 is like a drop in the ocean. It is a ridiculous statement to say that we have got more than we had in previous years.