Berkshire Councils Unite: Progress or Disappointment?

Berkshire's six councils - Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham and Bracknell Forest - set up the Berkshire Prosperity Board in 2024 to replace the old Local Enterprise Partnership and tackle health, employment, infrastructure and housing.

At a board meeting on Monday (June 15) leaders heard progress updates, but several said they want clearer, tangible wins residents can see.

Councillor Simon Werner said: "I am a simple man; I like things on the ground. I like to be able to say, 'we've done this'."

Wokingham's chief executive Susan Parsonage warned: "There is a lot of groundwork to actually take us to a different level as well and that does take time."

West Berkshire leader Jeff Brooks questioned whether the board has delivered more than informal council co‑working. "I think I'm getting to the point where I'm going to reflect on all this effort going in and whether it's really delivering anything for people. I'm sorry to be so disappointed in it, frankly," Cllr Brooks said.

He added that meeting together is positive but the board lacks momentum. "I know I'm going to get other people tell me, 'you've got to put the building blocks in place', but at some point, you've got to start delivering. One thing is missing substantially, I believe, and that's communications."

Slough leader Wal Chahal echoed calls for visible change: "We need to see outcomes, we need to see on the floor impacts."

Others defended progress. Wokingham leader Cllr Stephen Conway pointed to opportunities created so far, including £9.5million invested over five years into Connect to Work. The programme is a Berkshire‑wide, free, voluntary‑supported employment scheme, funded by the Government, to help people with disabilities and long‑term health conditions find 'secure and meaningful employment', a report said.

Cllr Conway said the board is also "having some success" with Homes England grants for individual councils, but that the biggest affordable housing funds will need a strategic authority. "We are not yet realising the full potential we can get out of partnership and collaboration [level]," he added. "But that in my view, is not a reason to reflect and move back from it. It's a reason to move forward with renewed urgency, not in the opposite direction."

Bracknell Forest leader Helen Purnell pointed to practical wins: 59 properties across Berkshire have accessed £971,132 to pay for energy efficiency measures through the Warm Homes Local Grant. Cllr Brooks said he was "just putting the marker down to get urgency in outputs" and to make sure the board can boast about them.

Elena Chiujdea, Local Democracy Reporter