To receive any statements by the Leader of the Council, Executive Members, and Deputy 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:
Clive Jones, Leader of the Council,:
This Council finds itself in the most difficult period of the last 40 years. There is raging inflation, energy costs are rising, as are food costs. Fuel prices and the cost of other goods in our shops have also been rising for months. We have a cost of living crisis. The value of the pound has plummeted making our imports very expensive, therefore increasing costs everywhere. Only today interest rates have risen to their highest level in 14 years at 2.25%, adding further pressure to the budgets of residents and the Council.
These are unprecedented times, where we as an Administration of the Council have to make many difficult decisions. We will not shy away from those decisions. Our first priority has to be to balance the Budget. Councillor John Halsall, the former Conservative leader only a few months ago said that reserves were for a rainy day, and it is now raining. Inflation was then around 5%. How things have moved on. Inflation has nearly doubled and is forecast by many to reach 18% next year. Things were so bad the previous Administration used £2million of reserves to plug the gap in the Budget. This is the equivalent of a nearly 2% increase in Council Tax.
It is no longer raining. We are in the storm and there is thunder and lightening everywhere. There is massive uncertainty in the economy, and the Council is not immune to these difficulties, but we will rise to the challenge of balancing our Budget and maintaining vital services and helping the vulnerable in the Borough the best we can. Along with Councillor Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, the Executive Member for Finance, I and the rest of the Executive and senior Officers are working very hard to maintain services. A number of services were not properly budgeted for by the previous Administration. This included the 18 bus service. We were advised of this budget shortfall 10 minutes after taking over the running of the Council. The Winnersh Triangle extension was not properly budgeted for, and there was no provision for food caddy liners.
In addition to this there are serious shortfalls in revenue targets set by the previous Administration. There will be shortfall in the Revenue Budget in Leisure Services, and as massive shortfall from car park charges. This could be up to £800,000. This year’s budget for the provision of blue waste bags was the same as last year’s. Why did anyone think that there would not be a rise in the cost of blue bags?
There are also pressures from rising demands for Council services across the board, including many statutory services that we must support. We have decided to support Free School Meals during school holidays for families who usually receive them. This helps over 2,100 families within the Borough. Over the coming months the Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be looking at the Budget for the next 3 years. Councillors of all parties will be able to look at what is being considered for the next few years before the Budget is finalised in January. I encourage all councillors to take part in this process. There is now a new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, and I will be writing to him to ask for a meeting to discuss housing numbers within the Borough. This will be the third Secretary of State that we have had in the last 4 months. Hopefully we will be able to do something to reduce housing number forced on us by the Conservative government. I am also writing to other Secretaries of States including the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Transport, and the Secretary of State for Health.
Madam Mayor, as I have said, we are living in very challenging times, but this Liberal Democrat Administration will rise to the challenge, protect services as best we can, and balance our budgets demonstrating financial competence.
Stephen Conway, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Housing:
The new Administration is very much aware that the Council needs to work in a partnership of equals with a wide variety of external bodies if our residents and businesses are to be properly supported and the Borough is to continue to be a great place to live and work.
I want to take this opportunity to report to Council on the work we have been undertaking to develop, strengthen, and in some cases repair, relationships with external partners. Rachel Bishop-Firth and I have been working Senior Council Officers to develop an involvement with the Hardship Alliance of local voluntary and charitable bodies to help mobilise and coordinate efforts to address the local impact of the cost of living crisis. As the Council, like our residents, is feeling the pinch financially with double digit inflation, rising demand for services and significant shortfall in anticipated income, we are not in a position to give the Alliance substantial amounts of money. But we are doing our bit to mobilise resources in a joint effort to help those in our community who are most vulnerable to the pressures created by the current crisis. To this end, a fund or donation from businesses, charities and individuals will soon be established, and I urge all councillors to make their own contributions to that fund. Our work in the Hardship Alliance is an example of the benefits that can come from reflective partnerships.
We have also been devoting time and effort to rebuilding relations with the Town and Parish Councils. We started recently with a very productive meeting with the Town and Parish clerks. We hope that the Borough/Parish Liaison Group will also be able to play a significant part in developing our partnership in ways that bring real improvements in our community. There is still much to do, not least in gearing the Borough Council itself up to more reflective and productive partnership working. We have some excellent examples of good practice and we want these successes to set the benchmark for more effective partnership working across the Council.