Consultation and Engagement Hub

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

In Summer 2022, Marketing Means were commissioned by the Council to undertake a representative sample survey of 1,000 residents via telephone and in-street interviews. The purpose of the survey was to gauge levels of satisfaction with the local area, the Council and the services it provides.

A summary of the results can be found here.

Roads and pavements - we have delivered a £9 million three-year highways repair scheme and have commenced an additional £8 million road and pavement investment programme.

• • Over 400 residential roads have been resurfaced as part of year 1 and 2 (2020/21 to 2021/22) in the three-year-programme with a further 100 expected in year 3 (2022/23).
  • 34 pavements have been reconstructed as part of year 1 and 2 (2020/21 to 2021/22) in the three- year-programme with a further 50 expected to be reconstructed in year 3 (2022/23).

Levels of crime - a new three-year Community Safety and Serious Violence Strategy has been approved following a needs assessment and public consultation, capturing the voices of our communities and involving key agencies such as the police and probation. Seven priorities have been identified, including reducing community based drug activity, reducing knife violence and tackling violence against women and girls. The Community Safety Partnership is now developing a three-year action plan to tackle these priorities. The plan will deliver a number of actions through working in partnership across these key areas.

Traffic congestion - we are improving bus services and delivering more bus lanes through the £26 million Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) grant funding secured from Government, building a new station at Green Park and refurbishing Reading West Station, as well as investing in cycling improvements and enhancements for pedestrians. We are investing in our traffic signal assets as well as moving to a 4G radar vehicle detection monitoring system, and updating the Urban Traffic Control systems that will improve traffic flows, reduce congestion and reduce pollution levels.

Affordable housing - we are investing a further £105 million in the delivery of 290 homes over the next three years, as well as securing nomination rights to around 400 new affordable homes through the planning process over the next four years

Cleaner streets - a free bulky waste collection service has been introduced for all residents across the borough. For Reading town centre, we will be investigating how, through our street cleansing and waste collection services, we can reduce the persistent presentation of bagged waste. This will then be rolled out to local shopping centres. In addition, we are investing in a new works scheduling system to improve efficiencies and communications for operational teams within Streetscene.

Parking - we continue to address smaller-scale parking issues raised or observed through the Waiting Restriction Review programmes and consider further rollout of resident permit parking schemes where there is demonstrable majority local support to do so. We have also commissioned a review of the Council’s Town Centre Parking Strategy.

We asked the residents of Reading to comment on the priorities we developed for our new Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy.

Most of the respondents felt the proposed strategic priorities were right (36 of the 46 responses - 78%)

There were clear themes identified in the feedback across the consultation. When asked about ‘comments regarding the priorities’ if the priorities ‘highlight victim-survivor needs and ‘what is missing in reducing the prevalence of domestic abuse’, many respondents had similar comments, which have been themed and explained below:

Housing

• There is a lack of freedom with housing choices, with many victim-survivors often told to re-house themselves, rather than being able to remain safe in their own homes.
• There is a need for more flexible housing solutions to accommodate victim-survivors (with different needs) and their children

Education and training

• Better training materials need to be made available in schools to prevent cycles of abuse at an earlier age.
• There needs to be more specific and targeted trainings provided, e.g., training for professionals on court guidance and community domestic abuse awareness raising sessions
• Training should be provided to professionals around perpetrators

Support services

• To increase support workers as there are often long waits for support programs
• Increase community-based support and interventions
• An attention to perpetrator programs to hold perpetrators of abuse accountable

Community engagement and domestic abuse awareness

• More widespread campaigns in all communities to increase domestic abuse awareness across Reading
• Making domestic abuse more visible within the community

Accessibility

• Support for those with no recourse to public funds needs to be accessible
• Support and services for male victim-survivors needs to be accessible
• Support and services for the LGBTQIA+ needs to be more accessible
• Support and services for those who identify as disabled needs to be more accessible

We shared these findings with the Domestic Abuse Partnership Board, which is a collaborative, multi-agency partnership working together to reduce the prevalence and effects of domestic abuse within Reading. The partnership is made up of: Reading Borough Council, Thames Valley Police, Adult Social Care, Brighter Futures for Children, Drug and Alcohol Services, Berkshire West Integrated Care Systems, Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and organisations within the Voluntary sector who specialise in domestic abuse and domestic abuse within the LGBTQIA+ communities. 

The findings and comments provided by the respondents were themed, shared and discussed with the Board. As the majority of respondents had agreed with the proposed strategic priorities, it was agreed by the Board to keep the priorities the same without any changes. However, the comments and issues discussed within the consultation have been highlighted in the wider Reading’s Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy 2023-2026, which has now been published, you can find our strategy here: Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy 2023-2026