West Berkshire residents could be hit by more council tax rises

Report warns council will face multi-million pound funding gap over next two years

PEOPLE in West Berkshire can expect another two council tax rises over the next two years, a new report suggests.

West Berkshire Council will be left with multi-million pound funding gaps each year between 2020 and 2023, even with three consecutive 3.99 per cent council tax increases, according to the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Earlier this year, the Conservative-run council approved a 3.99-per-cent hike (including two-per-cent rise for adult social care funding) and £3.24m of cuts.

And even if it implements two more 3.99-per-cent tax hikes over the following two years, it will need to save a further £12.54m to balance the books, according to the strategy.

The council, which is legally required to set a balanced budget each year, no longer receives a revenue support grant from the Government and uses the money generated by council tax to fund 70 per cent of services.

Under the current rules, local authorities in England can raise council tax by up to 2.99 per cent, plus a further two per cent if they provide social care. They cannot impose a larger hike without holding a referendum.

West Berkshire Council has also been forced to deal with increased costs and lost income during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Government has supported it with £8.6m of emergency funding so far and it could soon provide a further £2m.

To help fund public services in the future, the council recently invested around £65m in commercial properties, such as shops, offices and warehouses, and it expects a two-per-cent return each year.

It had planned to invest £100m, but the ambitious project was halted earlier this year after the Government raised concerns about councils across the country using low-cost loans to invest in property.

At a meeting of the council’s governance and ethics committee on August 24, Jeremy Cottam (Lib Dem, Thatcham North East) called for a review of the commercial investments and raised concerns about the impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on them.

He said: “I see this as a very high financial risk to this council and would urge that we look at this promptly and even review, maybe even divest.”

But Jeff Beck (Con, Newbury Clay Hill) said it may be “premature to go too deeply into this” because “the market has not yet settled down”.

Tony Linden (Con, Tilehurst Birch Copse) said: “I don’t think we should be rash on this and rush at things. We need to take a measured approach.

“With the property market, like the stock market, you need to make rational decisions over the long and medium term.”

He added: “On balance, a lot of our investments are still very, very viable, so there isn’t a problem.”

Rick Jones (Con, Tilehurst and Purley) said the council “halted commercial investment some time ago” when the market was “disrupted”.

He added: “I know the executive have been looking at other ways of using the capital monies that were borrowed, for different purposes.”