Councillors Clash Over £4.6 Million Overspend

Reading councillors traded barbs after a report showed Reading Borough Council faces a predicted £4.633 million overspend for the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. The figure was raised at a policy committee meeting on Monday 16 March and the council says the shortfall will be covered from reserves.

Opposition leader Councillor Rob White said: "The getting on for £5 million of overspend, although it is less than last year, is still clearly unsustainable, the reserves that the council has have been going down year on year, it's not a bottomless pit. They will run out, so it will be great to see, one year, an overspend of nothing!"

"I can keep dreaming."

Labour's Ellie Emberson, lead councillor for resources, pointed to earlier surpluses — a £3 million surplus in 2021/22 and £4 million in 2022/23 — and accused the Greens of proposing costlier budgets. She said: "That was against a backdrop of austerity. If my memory serves me correctly, at one of those meetings, the Greens brought forward a budget proposal which would have cost us more money, and taken money from the reserves."

"And indeed, when we had our full council meeting, I don't remember any alternative budget being offered, so I don't think we'll take any lectures from you on budgeting."

Council leader Liz Terry defended the administration, saying general reserves will rise from £8.9 million to £11.4 million in the coming years. She contrasted that with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which has a £15 million reserve but raised council tax by nine per cent in 2024/25, and West Berkshire, which has a £10-14 million reserve after a government bailout.

Turning on Green-run Bristol — which needs to find £41 million in savings next year — Cllr Terry said: "Guess how much they put their council taxes up?"

"They put it up by the maximum that they were allowed to put it up, 4.99 per cent, just like everyone else!" She added: "He says 'once again getting less for more' - I think you will find this is the reality of having to run local authorities in the current climate. We can see down the road that if you are a Green-run authority, what do you get? You get the reality of what it's like to be in control and running the budget. So all this nonsense of 'less for more', no thank you, we'll have none of that, cllr White!"

Replying, Cllr White said: "That is the best abuse of the chair I've seen for some time! It's so disappointing that we've gone from having a Tory government to a Labour government that just behaves like the Tories. The Labour government is screwing over every council, then that's why councils are putting up council tax, because the government is not funding them properly!"

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter