“With other local councils getting into financial difficulties, it is important to give our residents in Wokingham Borough, confidence that we are in a strong position and are not at risk.
Thanks to Conservative prudence, sound investments and careful budget monitoring, our services are not only safe, but we are able to invest in improvements for all," says Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for finance and housing.
Recent news that some local authorities ( for example Labour-led Slough Council) have had to declare bankruptcy or are struggling to make ends meet, residents are naturally concerned that we could go the same way – but the short and simple answer is no.
In fact, thanks to the Conservative administration's careful budget monitoring, prudent borrowing and shrewd investments, our finances are among the soundest in the land.
Here’s how we are safeguarding our financial future, which is the cornerstone of being able to provide great services.
Close budget monitoring (internal scrutiny):
We regular monitor and report on expenditure throughout the year in order to keep a close eye on expenditure. Last year, the budget came in slightly underspent and we are currently on a good track this year.
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability (CIPFA) Resilience Toolkit:
The toolkit was issued by CIPFA in response to general concerns about local authorities’ financial stability and provides a measure (a set of financial indicators) against which we can test our resilience. An independent assessment of all these indicators (by the Municipal Journal) placed us in the top 20 in the country overall last year and, since then, all our key indicators have got even better.
Net debt:
All local authorities have borrow to money if they want to invest in new things such as leisure centres, regenerated towns, solar farms and other improvements for the community. But the key is to ensure your borrowing can be funded by the investment return and the assets produced. In our case, the cost of borrowing is not just off-set by the returns we are making, the Conservative-led Council is actually generating revenue that can be reinvested in services.
Strong reserves:
The recent National Audit Office report on the ‘Financial sustainability of local authorities’ shows we have reserves that can cover 85% of our spending power, which is twice the national average.
Auditing of accounts (external scrutiny):
Our external auditors have recently signed off our accounts as sound and have raised no concerns with regards to our financial soundness. They have also specifically reported positively on our approach to commercial investments which is in stark contrast to local authorities who have had to declare bankruptcy after ignoring warning signs flagged up by their auditors.
But don’t take our word for it: Go to the National Audit Office website (nao.org.uk) and search for Financial sustainability of local authorities.
