The leader interviews 2022

‘My priority is tackling inequalities. Everyone should share in Reading’s success’

MY day one priority for Reading is to really get cracking with targeted work to tackle inequalities in our town - we need to ensure people can share in Reading’s success.”

That’s the promise of the party’s leader Cllr Jason Brock, who is standing for re-election in Southcote on May 5.

“It is unacceptable to me that Reading is the third most unequal place in the country and we need to get to grips with that. For me, that is my entire reason for getting into politics.”

Cllr Brock has led the council since 2019, taking over from Jo Lovelock, and tackling this has been one of his priorities.

In recent times, Reading has mostly had a Labour-run council and there are some concerns that the party has run out of steam. Opposition parties have raised concerns, particularly over the late filing of accounts. Cllr Brock feels that some of this is from opposition parties not understanding how council finances work.

On the accounts “there were technical issues” five years ago which didn’t affect the way the council was run, and new improved systems are coming on stream.

“We’re about to sign off the 2019/20 unqualified accounts, and that will bring us up to date with every other local authority in Berkshire,” he said, adding that the latest accounts can’t be resolved until the Windsor and Maidenhead council sign off the Berkshire Pension Fund accounts.

“(The late filing was) an historic issue, I’m glad we’ve managed to make changes and improvements. But the proof in the pudding is when you see the investments being made across Reading.

“That’s evidence of our competence with finances and prudence over a number of years that’s allowed us to build up to this position.”

He added that the council now has a robust reserves position that allows the council to invest in everything from leisure centres to railway stations, as well as improving road quality.

“Reading has been innovative, and it’s been cautious but ambitious at the same time,” Cllr Brock said. “And that’s allowed us to be in the top third of financially robust local authorities in the country.”

If re-elected, Reading Labour plans to build 300 council homes over the next four years. Is this figure too low?

“It’s a very ambitious target,” Cllr Brock says. “It’s as many as were built in the entirety of the year 2004, across the entire country. But I would like to do more. The government imposes a series of financial restrictions upon local authorities and deprived us of funding over the past decades, taking tens of millions of pounds away from our annual budget - that really constrains our ability to build more, more quickly.”

He added that identifying sites was a problem, but hoped to add to the 300 total in time.

To help tackle the climate emergency, the council has zero-carbon policies in place - Cllr brock says they are “the most stringent requirements in the country”.

“We’re very firm with developers when they apply to us for planning permission that they have to meet those requirements,” he said. “Ideally, we want as many environmental mitigations built into housing in the borough as possible.”

With new housing comes a need for more cars on the road. Recent works in Caversham has seen excessive jams across the town, and similar situations occur if the M4 has to close. Is this something we must put up with in Reading?

“In order to mitigate them we need to change people’s travelling habits,” Cllr Brock said. “I entirely acknowledge there is work for us to do as councillors, and as a council, to provide the means for people to make that kind of shift.”

That includes using the funding from the government to enhance Reading Buses’ services “so that it’s fast, affordable and everybody is able to access it wherever they live in the town”.

And cyclists can look forward to schemes to help on Shinfield Road and Bath Road.

“We know that in order to reduce congestion, we need to get people out of their cars, particularly for those shorter journeys, the kind of journeys which are not necessary, and get them thinking about whether they can walk whether they can use the bus whether they can cycle and provide the means to make that as easy as possible,” he said.

He also has hopes that a third crossing over the River Thames could be agreed - finally - with South Oxfordshire Council, ending people using Reading as a rat run.

“We need neighbouring authorities to come on board with us to make that a proper success,” he said.

On the cost of living, Cllr Brock says that Labour was the only party nationally to have a serious policy to tackle the crisis. Locally it had been active by providing energy and food vouchers for those on low incomes, and enhancing the council tax support scheme.

“Those on low incomes will have lower expenditure in the forthcoming year and beyond,” he added. “But these are short-term fixes. We need to ensure that everybody in Reading can share in the town’s economic success.

“We’re announcing a big programme of targeted work in the neighbourhoods that are most in need of support to ensure that residents can access the economic opportunities, employment opportunities and play a full share of the economic success in Reading.”

This includes support and training for apprenticeships and similar schemes.

Also helping residents will be the council’s plans to spend £32 million over several years to retrofit green energy solutions onto its housing stock.

“It’s a big construction job,” Cllr Brock admits. “Residents will see the benefits in lowered energy bills, and it helps the environment. It also sets an example to other landlords.”

Another example the council hopes to set is its rent guarantee scheme, so when people on the housing register are placed with private landlords, the landlords are guaranteed the agreed sum.

“It means we’ve been able to get our housing register down. A few years ago, the housing waiting list was 10,000. Today, it’s about 4,500. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ve made great strides by being innovative.”

Cllr Brock is hoping that in this allout election, where residents have to vote for all seats on the council, they will place their three votes for Labour candidates: “If you look at our plethora of candidates, you will see people from all of Reading’s different communities, we are diverse, and we are representative of Reading. And because of that, we also care passionately about Reading,” he said.

“We’re residents like you, we want to give back to our community. We want to serve you and we want to work with you. And that’s why you can have trust in us.”

He added: “Because Reading is our home, we’re ambitious for it. We’ve taken the town to national and global recognition for its work to tackle the climate crisis. Our economy is booming, despite all the challenges, regularly rated as one of the strongest in the UK.

“And only Labour have the candidates to deliver for it, and I hope that your vote for us on Thursday, May 5, because a vote for Labour is a vote for a council that will work with you and work for you and a council that will deliver what is best for Reading.”