I am requesting the following data for the years 2007 to the most recent available financial year:

1. Budget Gap Data: The budget gap figures for each financial year, which represent the difference between planned expenditure and expected revenue for the council. This should include:
• The projected and actual budget gaps for each year.
• Any relevant documents, such as Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) reports, budget reports, or similar documents that contain projections or actuals on budget gaps.

2. Council Reserves: Details of your council’s financial reserves, including:
• Total reserves held by the council at the end of each financial year.
• The breakdown of these reserves into usable reserves (those that can be used for future spending) and unusable reserves (those that are set aside for accounting purposes).
• Any documents or reports detailing how the reserves have been allocated or planned to be used, including any decisions on maintaining reserve levels.

3. Local Service Spending: Information on the total local service spending, broken down by major service areas (e.g., housing, social care, transport, education, environmental services). Specifically, I would like:
• The budgeted and actual expenditure figures for each service type.
• Year-on-year percentage changes in spending levels.

4. Central Government Grants and Funding Reductions: Any reports or documents detailing the reductions in central government funding to your council during the period in question and their projected impact on the council’s financial strategy.

Information is available on the Councils website so we are applying Section 21 to this request. The Councils finance data, budgets, Medium Term Financial plan, etc is available online.

https://wokingham.moderngov.co.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?Act=earlier&CId=131&D=200811272000&MD=ielistmeetings