Council hits back at MP’s accusation

ONE OF the borough’s four MPs has accused Wokingham Borough councillors of wanting to “keep quiet” about the grants it gets from central government.

In a recent series of posts on his blog, Sir John Redwood listed grants to the council.

“The councillors seem unaware of all this money or want to keep quiet about it.” he wrote.

He said his lists do not include the a grant for schools or funds for special purposes like transport and roads.

“It reminds us that there is a grant for social care, a grant for discharge from hospital, and a Better Care fund grant in response to lobbying for more money for social care beyond the general resources,” he wrote.

“It also sets out the funding guarantee top up, compensation for business rates as well as the main funding settlement spending capacity.

Responding to the claim, Cllr Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for finance, said: “It is important that people understand the truth over our funding position – which is that it is caused by ongoing underfunding from the government – and misleading statements do not help us with this, or help people facing real financial hardship.

“What Sir John has claimed is very misleading. He is confusing your council tax with government grants.

“Council tax is not a government grant as Sir Redwood seems to think. It is the money that our residents all pay locally for services such as waste collection, libraries and roads.

“Our core spending power, which consists of the council tax we collect and our settlement funding assessment, is not extra money we get from the government; it is the ongoing funding that we rely on every year.

“Other than this, Sir John lists grants that all councils receive. We only get these grants when we need them for specific things.

“As a council, we are getting on with making approximately £16 million savings required due to chronic government underfunding, while protecting those who need us.

“It would be good to have all local politicians support us in these efforts on behalf of our residents.”