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:
Prue Bray, Executive Member for Children’s Services:
I have a very short statement. I would just like to inform everyone that in November Ofsted inspected the Council’s Adult Education Service and the report was published on the Ofsted website on Monday this week. I am very pleased to be able to say that Ofsted rated the service as Good.
Sarah Kerr, Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services:
I want to take this opportunity to update you on the ongoing work from our Energy Team in collaboration with our Climate Emergency Team. We recognise that for both financial and environmental reasons, residents are looking more and more at what they can do to improve their homes, reducing energy consumption, and for the energy that they are using to be greener and generated on site. As you will be aware the Council is set to get a new website this summer and as part of that we are working towards having a dedicated page for energy and home improvements, where residents can find the information, they need in one place. This will include information on schemes that were operating or helping to deliver on, signposting to external available schemes and sources of financial support, energy reduction tips and other support services.
A fabric first approach is crucial to reduce energy demand in the first instance. In our own social housing stock, following a stock audit, we have a bid for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to make improvements to the homes that do not yet reach an EPC rating of C or above. We are encouraging other social housing landlords to apply as well. We have also got a bid in for Hug 2 which is the Home Upgrade Grant, where we can support low-income households to put in efficiency measures. We are continuing to support the role out of the Energy Company Obligation Scheme, otherwise known as ECO. We are now in the fourth iteration of this scheme, but I should point out that it differs from ECO 3 by being substantially more restrictive, so less households will qualify, and there are additional workload requirements on us the Council for each application. Given that as a nation we need to be improving the insulation on a million homes a year until 205 in order to reach our net zero commitments, this is a backwards step and deeply frustrating. Nevertheless, we will continue to apply for available funds and support residents in any way that we can.
I have mentioned previously our Home Decarbonisation Service that we plan to launch. Through a company called Parity Projects we now have the software to bring this to life, and the Energy Team, Climate Emergency Team, and Customer Services Team, are undergoing training with the aim of going live in the Spring. We will go to full promotion of this service in the Autumn of this year, enabling residents to look at their properties and what energy reduction changes that they can make, including the return on investment. We are also looking at other financial schemes such as loan schemes or schemes that offer a reduction on renewables such as Solar Together, who we are in advanced discussions with. Over time we hope to build a plethora of options and opportunities to overcome the various barriers faced by our residents as we transition to a more sustainable future.
I am afraid that I need to finish my statement by raising an issue, and that is the issue of poor behaviour. We have been told about some instances of behaviour on the part of councillors, and I mean councillors plural, towards officers that has fallen short of the standard we would expect. I want to take this opportunity to remind you that all councillors should treat officers with respect in this Chamber and in their correspondence with them. Robust discissions are perfectly possible without descending into bullying and harassment. Please make sure that you do not cross this line. There have been relatively few complaints about councillor behaviour in this Council compared to many. We would like that to continue.
Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, Executive Member for Finance:
You may have noticed that just before Christmas we received our Local Government Finance settlement grant. This grant is funded by Central Government and approved by MPs in the House of Commons. This extra money we have received for next year is £1.8million, which may sound like a big number but it amounts to only a 7% increase on the grant that we got last year, and does not go anywhere near enough to cover the additional costs of running this Council. If we follow the current course the inflation costs increase alone is predicted to be just under £9million for next year. Our Government’s funding per resident is still the worst in the country, and if we were paid just the national average it would inject a staggering £30million into our budget. I alluded to this earlier but our contributions paid by our council tax do not cover the basic needs of our residents. In this moment an average family of two adults and two children in a Band D property would need to contribute an approximate £350 per year to cover the basics of what we spend just to support their household. This is largely because our Council Tax charges are capped and we are not allowed to increase them in line with inflation, or fundamentally to just actually cover the cost of running the Council services. We are dependent on additional income from things like car parking, renting out leisure facilities, library book fines amongst many other things. We do have some property investments in the private sector, but they worry me, as anyone can look at bankrupt councils such as Slough and Thurrock to see how risky and disastrous that kind of income generation can be. However, we are where we are, and if one our income streams fails to deliver the expected amount, then we are stuck with very few places to go to bridge the gap. As it is we are altering our services to make them more efficient. Staffing levels are falling but we are resolved to ensure that those with the most need in this Borough will continue to be supported for as long as we can, even if that means that we have to make some unpopular decisions to do so.
Clive Jones, Leader of the Council:
I am sure that all councillors will know that the Local Government Association has been undertaking a Peer Review of our Council. They visited us in November, under the previous Administration, and they returned in October 2022, under the new Administration. As with the usual practice, the assessing team comprises of a Chair from the same political party as the ruling group as the Council being looked at. So in November 2021 the Conservative Leader of Essex County Council was the Chair. The team also comprised of two senior officers of unrelated councils, and finally an experienced person from the Local Government Association. The only change to the review team that we saw in 2022 was the Leader of Essex County Council stood aside for the Lib Dem Group Leader of Liverpool City Council, both very experienced councillors who have done a lot of work for the LGA, and continue to do so. Their independence and impartiality therefore should not be an issue. Sadly I have seen today, a misleading Facebook post, from someone who clearly does not understand how a Peer Review works. All Members of Peer Review panels who work for the LGA are independent. If they were not I am sure they would not be getting further roles from the LGA.
The feedback from the second visit from the independent reviewers was very good and several improvements were found. The Peer review feedback states ‘the Peer Team observed that there has been a palpable and positive change at Wokingham, in tone, in style and in purpose’, and thought they were encountering a Council that was very different to a year ago, which is a credit to both the work of officers and Members. They also said that the Council has clearly embraced the issues they were facing at the time of the original Peer Challenge, and turned them into opportunities using the financial position and the change in political control as an impetus for change. My Executive and I, and indeed the Senior Leadership Team, believe that it is important to learn from others, and I am pleased that the Peer Review Team has seen improvements in our Council. They noted in particular that this Liberal Democrat Administration does not shy away from difficult decisions, and given the difficult national economic position, that is very important. I would urge anybody interested in how we are working to make things better for residents, to read this report. It is encouraging that these independent assessors have found that we are going in the right direction, and have improved against their recommendations of November 2021, but we are not complacent and will continue to work with our partners for the good of all of our residents. I would like to take this public opportunity to ask the Chief Executive to convey my thanks and the thanks of the Executive and the Lib Dem Group, to all of the staff who have worked so hard for us to be able to get this very complimentary report from the Local Government Association.