To receive a statement from the Leader of Council.
Minutes:
The Leader of Council made the following statement:
I want to make it clear that all this administration, my party and I are completely opposed to the loss of every blade of grass, tree, shrub, field or greenspace in the Borough. Once it’s gone it’s gone forever. The verdict of the Borough’s “enough is enough” consultation was also clear that the residents of the Borough agree with our stance. I have lived in the Borough for the best part of sixty years. I remember how the rural district of Wokingham was.
Nevertheless, we are not an independent island. We must follow Government mandates, which require us to make provision for a Government determined number of houses. All mainstream political parties have within their manifestos a commitment to build a huge number of houses; the current Government objectives are amongst the lowest of the three national parties.
We have the option to do nothing, which would mean that we have no plan and therefore no defence against speculative development. There is not a square inch of the Borough which has not been optioned by a developer who would seek to exercise that option by claiming that we have no plan or five-year land supply. The developer would be successful in his application. I have no doubt that we would be faced with housing numbers several times those currently mandated. This is the option that Lib Dem South Oxfordshire took with the result, I understand, of many, many more houses and the original plan reimposed.
The current consultation for the Local Plan Update has now closed. There are at least two more opportunities for residents to make their views known. I have been very pleased to see a very good level of response. I was delighted to see many of my colleagues making strong representations for their wards. It was disappointing that other Councillors confined themselves to making futile political points about the housing numbers. As I have said all mainstream political parties within their manifestos have a commitment to build a huge number of houses, of which the current Government’s objectives are amongst the lowest.
I have worked hard and successfully to ensure that our housing numbers were reduced from 1,635 to the current 789 and campaigned successfully, initially alone with the support of John Redwood and Theresa May, to oppose the planned changes to national planning policies. Notwithstanding the consultation, I will continue to press Government to make more changes and encourage our MPs, who are all critical of the housing numbers and planning policies, to join me in so doing. As the Council and Government are of the same party, there is leverage that can be applied. I have written to the Minister and have received an acknowledgement. I am awaiting a meeting date. I have been successful in the past and hope to be so in the future.
Last time we as an Executive met, the new Omicron variant was just known in Wokingham. It has then since dominated our thoughts. The rate of new Covid cases reached a high of just over 1,600 per 100,000 at the beginning of January. Covid led to many families having to change their plans over the festive period. The new year started with a welcome decline in rates although with schools returning and the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant in an unvaccinated (in primary settings), and therefore susceptible population, this decline has been short lived. Rates are now back on the rise and are currently just over 1,350 per 100,000. The current rate reflects the week 13-19 January. We expect this to rise further, as daily case numbers continue to increase. Like the situation at the end of the Autumn term, most cases are now within our school age population and their parents.
The past month has seen, and continues to see, a flurry of new and changed guidance for us to follow. This is sometimes hard to keep pace with. Officers are working relentlessly to translate new guidance for our residents, through the Community Champion newsletter, via our website and other channels, and supporting our partners and providers working with care settings and educational settings as they navigate the complexities of the new situations.
There was an urgent national Omicron appeal for the public to ‘Get Boosted Now’, leading up to the end of 2021 and we have been working tirelessly to support health partners on the delivery of the new vaccination programme across the Borough. 67% of residents over the age of 12 have now received their booster vaccine and we continue to work with our healthcare colleagues to ensure that the vaccine offer reaches all our residents across the Borough.
With this backdrop of rising rates and pressure on services the Government’s Plan B is being lifted from today. Whilst this removes the mandate to work from home and wear masks indoors, we continue to encourage residents to take precautions where there is the risk of Covid transmission. We call upon all our residents and partners to be as patient as they can as services are operating under significant staffing pressure.
With one eye on the Spring, there will continue to be much change over the coming weeks whilst case rates remain high and rising; we must remain cautious and continue to employ all measures we can to keep our communities as safe as possible and reduce transmission as much as we can. And lastly on that topic, please continue to encourage everyone to be vaccinated with the three jabs.
On a happier note, for the last six months an organisation called Climate Emergency has been undertaking a benchmarking exercise of all Local Authority Climate Emergency Action Plans, scored against 200 criteria. The results were announced today, and I am very pleased to say that Wokingham ranked 8 out of 183 single tier authorities across the United Kingdom and I offer my congratulations to Gregor Murray, the Executive Member, who has pushed this forward.
We are approaching that time in the year when we present our medium-term budget proposals to full Council. We do this acutely aware of our objectives and responsibilities to the most vulnerable in our community. Last week we agreed to a Council Tax Reduction scheme approving over £4m worth of support to those facing financial hardship. This support sits amongst a whole range of measures we provide to those in need of financial assistance. John Kaiser will expand on this later in the meeting. We are also making great strides in the provision of affordable and social housing in the Borough, much needed particularly amongst our younger adults. The Gorse Ride project being considered at Executive next month is a testament to that.
Although we will continue to do what we can for our vulnerable, we must do this within our overall financial context of the Council. The Chief Finance Officer’s statutory draft report sets this out clearly and alerts us to unprecedented times in terms of financial risk and uncertainty. We have the impact of rising inflation, particularly alarming in the procurement of gas and electricity with potential increases of over 80%. We have the ongoing implementation of the Adult Social Care reform for which we have calculated the full impact to be well over £20m to the Council. We have the uncertainty of the Local Government funding system to determine our future Government funding. This takes place under a national levelling up agenda, so it is unlikely to go well for Wokingham. In addition to which we have a host of other financial pressures yet to reveal themselves, such as the true cost of Covid-19 and the outcome of the consultation on the Minimum Revenue Provision, which could increase the cost of debt falling on our General Fund.
So, to quote Donald Rumsfeld '...as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.' I would be inclined to go further than this and suggest our financial future also includes a degree of unknown unknowns, that is to say there are things we will not yet have been aware of.
It is in this context we must formulate our budget proposals and move forward with great caution through the following years. We passionately believe in helping those most in need in our community but can only do this by maintaining our strong financial resilience in the most precarious of circumstances. As my good friend and colleague, John Kaiser, often says “a council which is broke is no good to anyone”.