Agenda item

RESOLVED that the Executive:

1)    noted the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) report (Appendix A) and the issues contained within, including the local government finance settlement and the sections on key risks, and that they consider these when setting the council tax for 2024/25 and agreeing the Council’s medium term financial plan (MTFP);

2)    supported the Council’s response to the local government finance settlement as set out in Appendix 6 of the Chief Finance Officer report.

The Executive Member for Finance reported that this was a statutory report from the Chief Financial Officer. The local government finance settlement showed that 65% of the Council’s budget was spent on adult social care and children's services, leaving only 45% for everything else, including highways, waste management, parks, libraries and so forth.

In terms of government funding, Wokingham was the lowest funded in Berkshire and the lowest funded across the country per head of population.

The grant calculation was based on low levels of deprivation, which was a poor indicator as it did not reflect actual need.

The Council had been lobbying central government for better funding and the public had been invited to do the same. An example of this had been a recent letter sent to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It particularly highlighted the pressures of inflation, the National Living Wage and the cost of living pressures as well as accommodating refugees.

It would be an extremely challenging time looking ahead, to keep spending within budget, given the national and local context. Any unfunded financial burdens flowing into the year 2025/26 would need to be carefully managed and mitigated.

It was noted that Wokingham was not alone, and all councils were feeling the pressure, particularly if they had responsibility for adult social care and children.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services reported that the school's block as set out in the report, showed that schools would see an increase of 5.8%, this was not a blanket figure, every school would not get the same. It was noted that the majority of funding for schools was calculated on a per pupil basis. Some schools would have more pupils this year than last year and some will have less than last year. Therefore not all schools would get the same increase, but as a guide, 5.8% was roughly correct.

She stated that she was aware of a claim that was being made online by the leader of the opposition that said that mainstream schools were getting an increase and she stated that she was going to be very careful and quote this absolutely accurately:

‘The mainstream schools get an increase of over 10% this year on last.’ That claim is not borne out by the figures and is simply incorrect.

In terms of the Early years funding block, there would be an increase in excess of 58.3%, which on the face of it looked very promising. However, the increases were to cover the changes to entitlement to childcare support. From April 2024, eligible working parents of two year olds would be able to access 15 hours of childcare support. The Executive Member summarised that whilst the Dedicated Schools Grant was being increased, much of the increase was to pay for changes in early years.

Schools would see an increase, but not the percentage rise the Conservatives had claimed, and the special educational needs budget would still be running a deficit next year.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services stated that for all the things that the Council was expected to do and maintain in terms of Children’s Services, as could be seen from page 89 of the report, Wokingham was the third worst funded education system in England. The Schools Forum which met on 10 January provided much more detail on this and could be viewed online.

The Executive noted that the Council retained a very small portion of the money allocated to the schools via the Dedicated Schools Grant, the schools received most of it. The Council received less than 1%.

RESOLVED that the Executive:

1)    noted the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) report (Appendix A) and the issues contained within, including the local government finance settlement and the sections on key risks, and that they consider these when setting the council tax for 2024/25 and agreeing the Council’s medium term financial plan (MTFP);

2)    supported the Council’s response to the local government finance settlement as set out in Appendix 6 of the Chief Finance Officer report.