RBWM Budget: 'eight years to properly sort out' finances and achieve council's 'vision', leader says

The leader of the Royal Borough has said fixing the council’s finances and achieving his administration's ‘vision’ could take as long as eight years.

Councillor Simon Werner made the comments in an interview with the Advertiser, following the release of the council’s draft budget papers, which lay bare a £49million financial black hole.

Residents face a 7.5 per cent council tax hike to help balance the cash-strapped local authority’s books, but emergency Government money will also be needed to plug the gap.

Cllr Werner (Lib Dem, Pinkneys Green) said work ‘fixing the mess’ of the council’s finances was still ongoing, but insisted the ‘ship was turning around’.

Residents are ‘feeling the tangible effects’ of Liberal Democrat leadership, he claimed, but conceded ‘changes are not happening as quickly as I would like’.

The council’s £185million budget, which takes stock of all the council’s spending and income for the coming financial year, follows more than two years of financial struggles.

Soon after the Lib Dems seized control of RBWM in 2023, its financial leaders issued warnings of bankruptcy – with questions raised over historic financial decisions, including low council tax.

This year will be the second in succession that the Royal Borough’s residents have to stomach an above-cap council tax increase, following the near nine per cent rise in 2025.

Council tax increases are capped at 4.99 per cent and rises above this figure must be signed off by Government, which gave the Royal Borough ‘flexibility’ to increase the tax by 7.49 per cent earlier this month.

Asked whether it was fair for residents to ‘shoulder the burden’ of repairing the finances, Cllr Werner said another rise still left the Royal Borough as one of the cheapest council tax regions in the country.

At a time when the borough’s purse strings are still tight, the budget proposes £6million of savings, in part by strategies to help more people to live at home and away from care homes.

Adult social care is by far the council’s biggest expenditure each year to deliver, and it is one which risks increasing as the population gets older and demand increases.

The budget also includes a ramped-up £14million programme of investment to cope with cost pressures in demand for adult social care and moving services ‘in house’.

Cllr Werner defended the increase and said: “It’s investing in the future, if you like, by investing now in the preventative stuff. At the end of the day, looking after our elderly and infirm, looking after our struggling children, that’s the job we’re here for.”

Earlier in the interview, Cllr Werner reiterated comments made by the council’s cabinet member for finance, Cllr Lynne Jones, comparing recent changes to local government financing to ‘a grenade’.

He said there was a ‘fundamental fault’ in local authority funding across the country.

However, Cllr Werner said positive changes were coming in this budget incuding investment in car parks around Maidenhead, parks and outdoor spaces.

Cllr Werner said, ‘the last two budgets, I think, have really done the process of turning the ship around’, but he added ‘we can’t do everything in one go, because that would cost even more money’.

He added: “I said when we came to power… this is going to take eight years to properly sort it out, and we’re not even halfway through yet.

"It’s a long process to sort of build the vision the Liberal Democrats have for what the borough should look like.”

Asked whether residents should be expecting to see ‘tangible change’ after nearly three years in power, Cllr Werner said: “I think people can already see that tangible change.”

He said the council had invested in a new children’s care home as well as temporary accommodation.

“Changes are happening,” he added. “Not as fast as I would have liked, but we've always had this clear vision of where we want to be at the end.”

In a statement on social media, RBWM Conservatives said ‘councils everywhere are under pressure’ but that it was ‘fair to ask serious questions of the current administration’.

The group’s leader, Cllr Sally Coneron (Ascot & Sunninghill) said: “Residents understand that times are tough, but they also expect honesty, discipline and a clear plan.

“That means getting spending under control, focusing on core services, and only asking residents to pay more when there’s no alternative.”

On Tuesday, Cabinet will discuss the budget papers, available at: tinyurl.com/4at9kch3