COUNCIL tax is set to increase by 3.49 per cent after Wokingham Borough Council announced its budget for the coming year.

This means a band D taxpayer could pay up to £49 more a year if the council approves the plans next week.

The proposals come after continued cuts in funding from central government, which means the council receives £66 less per person than Bracknell Forest Council, £110 less than Reading Borough Council and £155 less than Slough Borough Council.

Leader of the council, Cllr Julian McGhee-Sumner, said: “We have got used to being badly funded and having to come up with new ways to save money, raise revenue, safeguard our future and provide services. I am delighted we are able to propose a budget that will focus on improving the services people rely on every day.

“Unlike other neighbouring authorities, we are not only maintaining our weekly waste collection, we are expanding what can be recycled through a new food waste service. We are proud to be not just maintaining our library services and country parks, but to be improving them.”

The council tax increase includes a 0.5 per cent social care levy which will help the authority support vulnerable adults and children in the borough.

Budget documents show the council expects to spend an extra £2.8m in adult social services due to increases in care packages, the general increase in cost of the services offered by the authority and due to more vulnerable young people transitioning into adult care.

Speaking to the media at a press briefing attended by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and BBC Radio Berkshire on Thursday evening (February 14), Cllr McGhee-Sumner added: “There are always challenges going for a council tax increase and we always try and keep it to the minimum we can, but we have to offer the services in adult social care, children’s social care and everything else.

“If you fail to pick up someone’s bins or if we don’t clean your road, people get quite annoyed. If you get something wrong in childrens and adults (social care) the consequences are very, very serious. We are incredibly cautious about what we do and how we do it.”

The council leader added that the ruling group has put pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, who is a borough MP, as well as other government ministers, for more help with revenue grants.

The authority depends heavily on council tax income, and Cllr Anthony Pollock told the media that this income is the “cornerstone” of the authority’s revenue spending.

He added: “We are financing 90 per cent of our net expenditure through council tax. But we are effectively adding small percentages on top of that in order to maintain the services that our residents want, to improve the quality that we think our residents want to deliver and also to provide a cushion for when the government decides to be nasty to us.”

WBC’s capital budget shows the authority is set to spend almost £100m on projects such as investing in commercial properties, regenerating Elms Field and redeveloping Carnival Pool.

Cllr McGhee-Sumner added: “As well as focussing on what people need now, we are taking the long-term view with a £100m portfolio of investments. A good local example is our purchase of Bush Walk, which is not just a charming shopping street but is now owned by us and returning well on the investment. We cannot sit back and think a future government will have a change of heart and start funding us fairly – it would be nice if it happened and we continue to argue for a fairer deal – but in reality, we must look after ourselves.”

The council is expecting to spend a total of £237m through its capital budget, with £147m of this being funded through borrowing and £9m being funded through the sale of residential properties in the town centre.

Extra money is expected to be sourced from developers’ contributions (known as section 106 money), revenue contributions to the capital budget, grants and repairs reserves.

Graham Ebers, Chief Finance Officer at WBC, told the media: “Austerity and lack of funding for local government will continue, so under the package of self-sufficiency we have a whole host of things like the town centre regeneration, there will be further investment in Wokingham Housing Limited, so that there will be new income generating schemes, you’ll see funding for commercial properties and things like the strategic development locations, which does add more properties in to the area and does make us a more slightly more financially viable entity.

“That’s not the purpose of doing it but by creating sustainable development locations, we maximise the income into the council, capital receipts, developer contributions, in order to provide these locations whilst adding to the number of council tax base across the organisation.

“All these are key components about our financial viability longer term. I think it’s been very responsible in that regard, we will keep trying to push for a better deal from the government for a better deal but we can’t guarantee that and therefore we will do all we can to maximise our own income and keep our destiny in our own hands, where that’s possible in the context of those escalating demand costs in adult social care and children’s services.”

Lindsay Ferris, Liberal Democrats councillor and leader of the opposition, told The News he was "surprised" at the announcement of the proposed plans from Wokingham Borough Council before next week's vote on the budget, and said he would issue a statement from the Liberal Democrats at the meeting next Thursday. 

The cabinet is set to approve the budget at a meeting on Thursday, February 21 before the full council decides on the proposals an hour later on the same evening.