How we use your money

The council’s budget pays for day-to-day services such as adult social care, children’s services, waste and recycling, planning, transport, highways, street cleaning, parks, playgrounds, libraries and environmental health. The council has set a gross expenditure budget of around £466.8 million for 2022/23 and £104.4 million – just under a quarter – is funded by your Council Tax. The rest is funded from a range of sources including business rates, income from fees and charges, and funding from grants.

Directorate / service	Budget 2021/22 (£m)	Budget 2022/23 (£m)	Change (£m)
Adult Social Care and Health Services	37.9	43.0	+ 5.1
Economic Growth & Neighbourhood Services	20.8	18.7	– 2.2
Resources	16.4	17.1	+ 0.7
Chief Executive’s Department	1.6	1.5	– 0.0
Children’s Services	48.1	49.0	+ 0.9
Corporate Budgets (inc. debt financing)	21.4	20.7	– 0.7
Net budget requirement	146.2	150.0	+ 3.8

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Income / expenditure	Budget 2021/22 (£m)	Budget 2022/23 (£m)	Change (£m)
Gross expenditure	458.0	466.8	+ 8.8
Gross income	311.8	316.8	+ 5.0
Net budget requirement	146.2	150.0	+ 3.8

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Funded by	Budget 2021/22 (£m)	Budget 2022/23 (£m)	Change (£m)
Business rates (including S31 grant)	35.7	39.1	+ 3.4
Revenue support grant	2.0	2.1	+ 0.1
New homes bonus grant	2.1	2.0	– 0.1
Other government grants	6.8	2.4	– 4.4
Collection fund / surplus (deficit)	0.4	0.0	– 0.4
Total funding	47.0	45.6	– 1.4
Council Tax requirement	99.2	104.4	+ 5.2

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Over the last year, we have:

• emptied 18,860 household bins a day
• introduced kerbside food waste collections to 56,000 homes
• provided 36,000 hours of care to vulnerable adults
• accommodated 264 people under the ‘Everyone In’ initiative to prevent rough sleeping during the pandemic
• moved our library service online during lockdown, issuing 61,000 e-resources and 22,000 click and collect items
• maintained 400km of roads, more than 100 parks and open spaces and 18,500 streetlights
• refurbished 4 playgrounds and opened a new one
• started local contact tracing to complement the NHS service and keep rates above 89%
• set up the One Reading Community Hub with partners taking more than 8,000 calls from people needing help during lockdown
• Brighter Futures for Children supported 54,000 children and young people, and served 23,300 meals to vulnerable children/children of key workers in the pandemic

Council Tax and the Adult Social Care precept

In 2022/23 the Council’s element of Council Tax will increase by 2.99%, an increase of £1.02 per week for a Band D property and £0.91 for a Band C property. The majority of properties in Reading are Band C and below. The change is made up of a 1.99% increase in general Council Tax and a 1.00% Adult Social Care Precept.

Adult social care services support people who need extra help due to physical issues or learning disabilities, mental illness or frailty due to age. This could be in the form of personal care like support with eating, washing or getting dressed, or with managing your home life like going to the shops. We help people live at home for as long as they can. Where this is no longer possible, care is provided through supported living, extra care facilities or nursing homes. Our adult social care services have been key to our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. From making extra calls and visits to people, to working with partners to ensure people are discharged quickly and safely from hospital.

We have been making our services more efficient for many years, reviewing how we provide care and investing in new technology. However, adult social care is under pressure due to an increase in demand for services, increases in the costs of providing care services, a decrease in funding for local government and more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. The 1% adult Social Care Precept will raise an extra £1.0 million, which is equivalent to 970 hours of homecare a week, and will allow Social Care teams to continue to protect vulnerable adults as we respond to, and recover from, the pandemic.

Police and fire rescue

Your Council Tax also helps to pay for services delivered by Thames Valley Police and the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue service.  Further information on the budgets and Council Tax requirements for these services can be found at:

Council Tax Leaflets · Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner (thamesvalley-pcc.gov.uk)Financial Transparency (rbfrs.co.uk)

Breakdown of Council Tax charges (Band D equivalent)

Reading Borough Council (own purposes)	2021/22	2022/23
Band D equivalent charge (excluding adult social care)	£1,578.69	£1,614.04
Band D equivalent – adult social care	£197.91	£215.68
Band D equivalent total (A*)	£1776.60	£1,829.72

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Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley	2021/22	2022/23
Total budget requirement	£475.9 million	£505.0 million
Reading precept	£12.9 million	£13.8 million
Band D equivalent (B*)	£231.28	£241.28

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Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service	2021/22	2022/23
Total budget requirement	£35.8 million	£38.4 million
Reading precept	£3.9 million	£4.2 million
Band D equivalent (C*)	£68.95	£73.95

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*Total	2021/22	2022/23
Band D equivalent (A+B+C)	£2,076.83	£2,144.95

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Environment Agency

The Environment Agency charges local authorities, including Reading Borough Council, a levy for providing flood defence.  In the Thames region, this includes maintenance of the river system and the operation of a flood warning system.  In 2021/22 the Council was levied £131,180 and for 2022/23 the Council has been levied £134,443.  These costs are included within the Corporate Budgets for Reading Borough Council.

How we use your money