Investing in Reading's Future: Reading Borough Council's Budget Consultation 2023/24

The Council ran a budget consultation exercise from 19/12/22 to 19/01/23. The consultation was accessible through the Council’s website and was promoted via the website, local media channels and various social media platforms. The consultation received 378 responses, a substantial increase from the 134 responses received last year.

Headlines from the consultation are:

• A small majority of respondents support the higher level of Council Tax increase proposed in the draft budget.

• A clear majority of respondents support the 7% increase in housing rents.

• If additional funding becomes available the service areas most supported to receive the benefit of that are Roads Maintenance and both Adult and Children’s Social Care.

• Adult Social Care also topped the list of priorities for additional capital resources.

More detailed results can be found here.

The consultation analysis highlights that the top service areas for suggested spend were Children’s Services and Adult Social Care. Another key theme was transport.

The proposed Revenue Budget and Capital Programme responds to this feedback by investing in these services. For 2023/24 Adult Social care will receive an additional £4.390m in revenue funding and a capital allocation of £3.879m. Children’s Services is boosted in 2023/24 by an extra £2.529m in revenue and £18.297m in capital. Capital expenditure on Transportation in 2023/24 totals £18.320m over a wide range of schemes