Making sure council budget is balanced

IN March of this year, I was very proud to present the West Berkshire Council budget for 2021-22.

The budget is always in two parts – the capital programme, which invests in essential assets for our residents such as schools, roads and other transport infrastructure, environmental improvements, leisure centres and more – and the revenue budget, which controls the day-to-day finances of the council ensuring that income and expenditure are balanced.

The two parts are interlinked – any money borrowed to fund the capital programme must be repaid through the revenue budget, much like my mortgage has to be repaid by monthly repayments funded from my salary.

It’s my job as executive member for finance to make sure that the budget is balanced and that council borrowing is affordable. We compare very favourably with other councils across the country on that measure. This year I was delighted that West Berkshire delivered the lowest council tax rise in England – your Conservative council will always strive to keep council tax rises to the minimum required to provide your essential services well.

Our Liberal Democrat opponents are very fond of telling us that we should be spending more of your money, but not so keen on telling us how they would pay for it – and at the same time calling for the council to raise less income but silent on what services they would cut.

For example, on these pages we often read letters that we should scrap the garden waste collection charge.

Did you know that this voluntary charge raises over £1.2m for essential services every year? I wonder which services the Lib Dems would cut to fund this loss of income – or perhaps it’s just the privilege of opposition that their sums don’t have to add up.

I’ve also followed the recent letters on the new food waste recycling service.

Despite what you may have read from some mischievous commentators, in addition to increasing our recycling rates, the new service is expected to save the council over £100,000 every year – that’s £100,000 of your money that can be invested in important council services that would otherwise be unavailable, and without a single penny raised in extra tax. That is what responsible and innovative financial management is all about.

Last year we gave residents the opportunity to understand the challenges we face by asking you to create your own budget using our online simulator. We had a great response and lots of good ideas on how to balance the budget – so we’re running the Budget Challenge this year once again. You can suggest how to divide the revenue budget between core services such as planning, rubbish and recycling, and social care.

You can suggest changes to council tax and other services the council might invest in and see the practical impact of your choices.

Once the challenge has closed, the council will look at where residents choose to spend their money, and use this to help inform how it sets budgets in the future. The budget simulator can be found at https://info.westberks.gov.uk/ budgetchallenge from October 18 until November 28, 2021.

ROSS MACKINNON

Executive member for finance, property, commissioning and economic development

West Berkshire Council