To receive any statements by the Leader of the Council and Executive Members.
In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.23 the total time allocated to this item shall not exceed 20 minutes, and no Member shall speak for more than 5 minutes.
Minutes:
Prue Bray – Executive Member for Children’s Services
I think that we all know by now that Wokingham Borough Council is the lowest funded unitary authority in the country. What you may not know is that our schools are in a similar situation. Schools in our area are the third worst funded in the country, behind only Rutland and Leicestershire. Before today’s autumn fiscal event/statement, teaching unions and Tory MPs (a rather unlikely alliance) were calling on Jeremy Hunt not to further cut education funding as previous decisions were leading to cuts in school budgets in 2023. The exact impact of these varies from school to school but, on average, schools in Wokingham were being predicted to lose £176 per pupil next September. That is a bigger drop than any other area in Berkshire except Slough and a bigger drop than Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Hampshire. This would make the funding gap between our schools and our neighbours’ schools even worse.
I have not had time to digest the impact of what was said today, but more money does seem to have been promised for schools for the next two years. We do not know what that will mean for our schools locally, but perhaps it means a slight easing of the position. So, our Borough’s schools deliver amazing education with lower funding than almost everyone else. We need to do what we can to support them. That is why I am pleased to announce that, today, we have joined F40, an organisation which is lobbying for fairer schools funding. It gets its name from the 40 authorities with the lowest funded schools. Despite having been at the bottom of the funding table for the entire time they were in charge, the Conservatives chose not to participate in this organisation. For the princely sum of less than £400 for the rest of the financial year, we have now put that right. I look forward to us doing whatever we can to support fairer funding for all the Borough’s schools.
Clive Jones – Leader of the Council
We have a cost of living crisis. Much of it is the responsibility of Downing Street. It is estimated that the Truss/Kwarteng/Redwood Budget of a few weeks ago added £30bn to the black hole, or what is now often referred to as the “blue hole” of £30bn that was already there. I include John Redwood with responsibility as he was clearly fully behind Liz Truss. He was the only MP prepared to defend her on TV and radio. Only this week, we have heard from the leaders of two of the largest county councils in the country – Kent and Hampshire, both currently controlled by the Conservatives. Their leaders said that whilst they recognised a very difficult national picture, they were calling on the Prime Minister to fund councils properly. Both leaders said that they faced budget deficits in coming years of a scale they had never seen before. If Ministers do not step in with immediate emergency help for councils and a new long-term proper funding plan then it is entirely likely that these two councils will join the list of councils going bust.
We are doing all that we can to ensure that WBC does not go bust, even though we are and have been for over eight years the lowest funded unitary authority in the country. WBC has been starved of cash by the Conservative Government for far too long. We are a responsible administration and we do not want to go the same way as Slough and Conservative controlled Thurrock who have both sadly gone bust. In Wokingham, we have the added pressure of being left with a huge budget shortfall of £2.2m by the Conservatives when they left power in May. They also did not properly budget for the Winnersh Park and Ride scheme which meant a shortfall of £1.3m and left no funding for 18 bus services after October 2022.
We are expecting our settlement from the Government a few days before Xmas. A few weeks ago I wrote to the Chancellor asking for a proper settlement before the end of the year so that we can plan our budget properly for next year. No answer. It does not look like the Government will find more money for local councils in today’s budget, although we are not clear about that yet. We do need more money from the Government for Wokingham, which receives around £24m less than similar unitary authorities every year. That is £24m that we are unable to spend on local services such as road repairs, schools and adult social care for our residents. WBC must be properly funded by the Government and we must send this message to the Government very loudly and very clearly. This extra funding is something that has to come from the Government.
Sarah Kerr – Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services.
Brenda Blainey, Judith Armstrong, Freda Walker, Marlene Doyle, Lauren Malt, Yasmin Chkaifi, Mariam Kamara, Lucy Powell, Marena Shaban, Lesma Jackson. These 10 women were all murdered. These 10 women were all murdered in January of this year. Since January, 85 women in the UK have been killed by a man, or a man has been the principal suspect. In the year 2000, the United Nations designated the 25th of November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The date is based on the 1960 assassination of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic. For a number of years before the UN resolution, the date had been marked by activists all over the world to raise awareness and combat violence against women. On 10 December we have International Human Rights Day. In between these two dates we have the international 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. Each year, the 16 days of activism has a theme. This year the theme is “Ending Femicide”, femicide being the killing of a woman or girl, in particular by a man on account of her gender.
The 25th of November is also White Ribbon Day. It is designed to coincide with the International day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. As this Council Chamber will be aware, White Ribbon is specifically about raising awareness about the role that men play in eliminating violence against women and girls. This is part of the wider VAWG agenda. The onus needs to shift away from what women need to do to keep themselves safe to tackling male behaviours. It is a minority of men, but all men can be part of calling it out, ending misogyny, promoting equality and respect and making society safer for women and girls. I am delighted that we have committed as an organisation to taking a strategic approach to tackling violence against women and girls. I encourage you all to play as full a part as possible in this. The 25th of November is approaching. In fact, it is a week tomorrow. There are a number of events being held across the Borough to raise awareness of the 16 days of activism, by both WBC and our partner organisations. In particular, a vigil is being held on 25 November at 7pm in Wokingham town market place. This will be a chance to reflect and to remember those we have lost in the past year due to femicide. I hope to see many of you there.
Rachel Bishop-Firth – Executive Member for Equalities, Inclusion and Fighting Poverty
Supporting our residents through the Cost of Living Crisis is one of the Council’s main priorities this winter. As part of the Hardship Alliance we are doing all we can to support residents who are struggling with rocketing bills for food, fuel and now housing. We are supporting a network of warm spaces where residents can go during the coldest months to keep warm, enjoy activities with others and, if they need to, ask for help with the issues they are facing. We are distributing vouchers under the Household Support Fund to ensure that families who rely on free school meals during term time can continue to feed their children in the school holidays. As well, we are using the Household Support Fund to help other residents who cannot afford essentials with grants and vouchers. Officers, along with Councillor Sarah Kerr have launched a scheme to issue free reusable period products to those who cannot afford this basic essential. This initiative helps to fight poverty and the climate emergency. We are also distributing other essentials such as blankets and energy efficient slow cookers to help people to keep warm this winter.
The demands on Council officers and the voluntary sector are huge. Queries and referrals to their services have increased dramatically. Library staff will be helping to provide advice to residents. The old library building will be used as a vital storage space. We are asking residents, if you can help in any way please volunteer either with time or donations.
We are also looking ahead to the spring. The cost of providing Wokingham families who rely on free school meals with vouchers to cover meals in holidays is £600k each year going forwards. We can only afford to provide this vital support to our most vulnerable children because we have Government funding through the Household Support Fund. Our current allocation runs out at the end of March and, at present, we have no guarantee of any further funding. The Liberal Democrats have committed to funding vouchers for eligible families to cover the period up to and including May half term holiday in 2023. But, with the gap between spending on essential services and the Council’s income, we will not be able to continue to provide these vouchers beyond May 2023 without help from the Government. The autumn statement today referred to the continuation of the Household Support Fund. We will confirm what this means for Wokingham as soon as we can.
Paul Fishwick – Executive Member for Active Travel, Transport and Highways
“Safe Drive, Stay Alive”. I was fortunate to attend the Thames Valley Area Safe Drive, Stay Alive event held at the Hexagon, Reading on 2 November. The event was attended by many 6th forms and colleges from across the region and was aimed at young people. There was a film about a series of serious and life changing events that was broken by hard hitting real life talks given by staff representing Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue, Thames valley Police, ambulance service, an NHS surgeon, the mother of a 19 year old daughter involved in a fatal accident, a lady who had been speeding and left with lifelong injuries, a court judge and a person who had been jailed for causing death by dangerous driving. The event was opened and closed by an officer from WBC. The points that were highlighted in Safe Drive, Stay Alive although aimed at the age group of the audience can actually be applied to all in the country who drive or travel in a car.
The second point I would like to make is about local bus services and the driver shortage. There is a growing driver shortage locally as well as nationally as current drivers leave to join the HGV industry. This has been exacerbated by previous Government Ministers incentivising recruitment when wages were already up to a third higher. Local bus wages make up around 67% of costs with fuel around 15%. Passenger numbers are down on pre-pandemic levels but are growing – now standing at around 81%. However, rising costs are a significant pressure and make commercial services less attractive, as well as supported services, especially with the lack of further financial support from WBC. WBC has already made available an additional £450k between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023. Local bus services are seeing ad-hoc cancellations. WBC as well as neighbouring authorities are working with bus operators to give passengers certainty as to which journeys will operate. I have therefore, written to the new Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, to highlight the situation and copied in our local MPs and the Chair of the Local Government Association, who has responded with very positive comments. I hope that the new Secretary of State will also respond positively.