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How we use your money

The Council’s budget pays for day-to-day services such as waste and recycling, planning, transport, highways, street cleaning, parks, playgrounds, libraries, environmental health, children’s services and adult social care. The Council has set a budget of £425 million for 2020/21 and just under a quarter is funded by Council Tax.

Your council, your services, your money Reading Borough Council’s budget for 2020/21

The image shows that over the last year, we have:

  • emptied 96,000 household bins each week
  • recycled re-used or composted 18,500 tonnes of household waste
  • built 57 new council homes
  • maintained 5,770 council properties
  • run 7 libraries with 486,832 items borrowed
  • maintained 404km of roads, 70 parks and gardens, 18,500 streetlights, 800km of pavements and fixed 3,863 potholes
  • provided 33,410 homecare hours per week for vulnerable adults
  • put on 513 productions in our theatres
  • given 167 tours of the Abbey Ruins
  • welcomed 165,6954 visitors to the town hall and museum

Investing in Reading

Over the next three years we’re investing in the areas you’ve told us matter most to you. 

  • We’re investing £9m to repair more roads, potholes and pavements
  • We’re investing an extra £250,000 to clean up the town centre, £145,000 to tackle issues like fly tipping and £150,000 to plant new trees
  • We’re investing more than £40m to modernise Reading’s leisure facilities, and building two new swimming pools
  • We’re investing £1.5m to increase recycling rates and introduce weekly food waste collections, £250,000 in electric vehicle charging points and £7m in initiatives to tackle climate change such as renewable energy infrastructure
  • We’re investing £12.3m towards a new station at Green Park and £3.4m to refurbish Reading West Station, and inviting your input into our new transport strategy
  • We’re investing £7m to improve adult social care services and £3.2m for Disabled Facilities Grants
  • We’re investing £1m extra in children’s services and building a brand new secondary school at Riverside
  • We’re making £19.5m of savings by doing things more efficiently, without cutting front line services and investing £2.5m to improve our website and access to services online so we can serve you better

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.