West Berkshire Council’s money - and where it goes

West Berkshire Council has a budget of around £174m to spend on the district’s services.

Council tax generates £101.4m for West Berkshire - that makes up about 61 per cent of the budget.

Business rates bring in another 17 per cent – around £29.9m.

Ten percent of the council’s budget is boosted by the Adult Social Care precept of £18.8m – that’s money from the extra bit of council tax.

But adult social care costs West Berkshire more than that.

Last year it spent around two thirds of its total budget on this and estimates spending more than £70m this year.

In 2015 English councils were given the power to increase council tax to pay for social care services for adults. These are services which help people with physical or mental disabilities or mental health needs carry out their daily routines.

It’s a problem being wrestled with in the council offices in West Berkshire, which has a looming population ‘bulge’.

The majority of the district’s population sitting in the 45 – 55 age bracket are either figuring out how to help their elderly relatives or looking into their own potential adult social care (ASC) needs.

Forecast modelling published in The Lancet suggests the number of people in the UK aged 85 or older who require round-the-clock help to eat, dress, wash and go to the toilet will almost double over the next 20 years.

The ASC spend for 2022/23 was £75m, which included £20m of income, mainly made up of client contributions from those who pay towards their care. Figures for this year aren’t there yet.

The council spends £6 out of every one hundred pounds on education, and double that – £12 in every hundred on waste and recycling.

Two pounds in every hundred goes to libraries, leisure and public health.

Another £15.6m comes from social care funding with other various grants funding coming in at £2.1m.

It has a collection fund surplus of £1.8m, and is currently using £1.8m of reserves or savings to keep the books balanced.

Council reserves are now down to around £4m – £3m below its proclaimed comfort level of £7m.

“This is quite frightening as there is not a huge amount of headroom for anything that comes left field at us,” said Iain Cottingham (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central), finance portfolio holder.

The overall budget of £174m is being funded by a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent, including the social care precept.

“By far the highest amount of spend is in adult social care and children care costs – amounting to 2,000 residents,” said Mr Cottingham.

“Nearly 70 per cent of the entire council budget is spent here.”