RBWM budget approved with 4.99 per cent council tax raise

RBWM approved a 4.99 per cent council tax increase in a 2024/25 budget full of ‘tough choices’ at a full council meeting last night (February 29).

The £118million budget includes an additional £5.3m spend in adult social care and £1.3million additional investment into children’s services.

Investment of £13million is proposed for critical infrastructure, like fixing potholes and resurfacing highways.

On the flipside of this, the council has also opted to increase fees and charges for services, on account of its staggering £200million debt.

Windsor and Maidenhead council leader Simon Werner lamented that this had to be his first ever budget – blaming the former Tory administration and declaring its last year’s budget ‘fake’.

The meeting saw the thin opposition of seven Conservatives refuse to back the Lib Dem plan.

They argued that there was not enough ‘ambition’ to the budget and more could be done to save the Borough besides service cuts and council-tax raises.

They decried the raising of council tax during a cost-of-living crisis alongside pared down services.

Conservative leader Cllr Maureen Hunt (Con, Hurley and Walthams) said it was ‘definitely not a people's budget.’

Cllr Lynne Jones, cabinet member for finance and deputy leader of RBWM, laid out the reality of the situation as the administration sees it.

Once again, she blamed historically low council tax. Debt and the need to dip into reserves has created financial instability, she said.

"In 2019 the lead member for finance stated that the council could choose to be debt free ... in the medium-term future,” said Cllr Jones.

"This has not happened. There has been no reduction in the £200million in the last four years.

"The cost of borrowing is projected to reach £13million this year. That's 11 per cent of our budget we cannot spend on services. How did they get it so wrong?"

Cllr Asghar Majeed (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) abstained on the council tax vote alongside his fellow party members, on the grounds that he believed there were 'further savings that could have been made'.

This was roundly lambasted by Cllr Werner who accused the Conservatives of having 'amnesia' over their past choices.

"The Conservatives voted for a five per cent rise, in this budget, last year," he said.

"We're trying to run a partnership council where we all work together to save the Royal Borough from bankruptcy.

"I thought the Conservatives were part of that – it is so sad to see that instead they're denying the past, not owning up to their mistakes, and worse, even forgetting how they voted at the last budget meeting."

Conservative councillor Julian Sharpe (Ascot and Sunninghill) also had criticism for the budget.

"The headline news here is that 12 months ago, a budget was prepared that had over £10million in reserves,” he said.

"The Conservative administration left the council with money in reserve and a sensible balanced budget.

"After 10 months in charge, this new administration is now admitting that over £6million in reserves has been spent.

"Not only this, but they've also destroyed the other surpluses that have recently been built up very carefully over previous years.

"Please would someone tell my residents how this represents good financial management of their money. I have to say that, really, this is a shambles.”

Fellow ward councillor and Tory, Cllr John Story, added: "This year, the council will have its first budget deficit for five years.

It's a deficit that will wipe out the four years of budget surpluses under the Conservatives.”

But he questioned the claim that RBWM has excessive debt, saying that Moody’s, a major credit agency – does not think so, judging by its list of councils with worst debt.

Cllr Story also countered claims of a 'fake budget' – saying that RBWM’s chief financial officer must have ensured that the council's budget was robust last year, under the Tories.

He argued the 'true reason' for the financial problems lay in the five months between the change of administration and October 10, the date of an extraordinary council meeting highlighting the council's situation.

Cllr Story said the new administration would have received 'intensive briefings' over the finances – and queried why it did not act sooner, if problems were apparent.

"It's inconceivable they failed to tell you, immediately after you took office, the corrective action you needed to take to deal with any likely budget variances," he said.

"Whatever the reason for the delay, you didn't get on top of the numbers quickly enough.

"By the time you had begun, belatedly, to take some action, you were already into the second half of the year. Though you could mitigate some of the losses, it was too late by then to mitigate them all.”

But Cllr Jones placed the blame back at the door of the Conservatives.

She said unbudgeted social care costs were 'at the root' of reserves being used up – and since the numbers of people accessing care has remained stable over the past year, there was no good reason why this was not budgeted for correctly by the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, Cllr Joshua Reynolds, cabinet member for communities and leisure, urged the opposition to cease 'scaremongering'.

"Let's not guess the figures and come to council and pretend you might know – you did that in your last budget and we know what that's left us with,” he said.

In response to accusations of a lack of a clear plan and ambition, he stressed the millions of pounds worth of investment, funded by grants, S106 and CIL money for streetlamps, EV chargers, repairs of schools and leisure centres, decarbonisation projects, pothole repairs, and school routes.

Independent and Lib Dem councillors voted in favour of the 2024/25 budget – meaning it is now approved.