THE LEADER for the Wokingham Borough Council faced scrutiny from a councillor recently, following the rise in poverty in the borough.

Cllr John Halsall was quizzed in a council meeting on July 30 by Cllr Sarah Kerr - she asked: "Does the leader of this council acknowledge that poverty exists within the borough?"

In response to this, Cllr Halsall said: "Wokingham Borough is one of the least deprived unitary authority areas in England.

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"It was, in fact, ranked as the least deprived in 2019. However, as is the case in all areas, Wokingham Borough does have some pockets of deprivation and poverty; where households are living on low-incomes and may have been for many years.

"The Department for Work and Pensions estimate that around 7 per cent of Wokingham Borough children, approximately 2,400 aged 16 years and under, live in low-income households compared to 15 per cent in Great Britain, 8 per cent in Bracknell Forest, and 7 per cent in Windsor & Maidenhead.

"We have a clear understanding of our demographic profile for the Borough and of where our more vulnerable communities reside, including those who may be most affected by poverty.

"Nevertheless, we realise there is always more that we can do, and moreover we want to do more to get a greater level of granular detail around the key poverty metrics to aid our understanding.

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"The impact of Covid-19, for example, has seen that almost 18 per cent of our workforce in Wokingham have been furloughed up to 31 May 2020, compared to 24 per cent over the UK as a whole.

"We aim to target our services to support these communities most in need; for areas such as Norreys, Finchampstead South, and some areas within Winnersh ward.

"Since Wokingham Borough is one of the most affluent areas in the country, there is a significant gap between residents on low-income compared to those on higher incomes.

"Wokingham Borough Council is a member of the Berkshire Recovery Group which is focussing on four priority themes; one of which relates to Individual Hardship.

"Hence from a County perspective, there is a spotlight on this area, and moreover an agreed partnership approach to providing and supporting those communities facing hardship at this challenging time.

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"It is also important to recognise that the Council itself is, too, suffering unprecedented financial challenges with declining balances.

"Therefore, we must be judicious in our approach to poverty ensuring we are truly focusing on and supporting those most in need.

"Despite this, we are taking a compassionate approach with our Council Tax collections by contacting those residents who may be having difficulty with their payments, engaging with them to understand their individual circumstances and to proactively support them going forward."

Following this response, Cllr Kerr said: "The difficulty with using statistics is the unit of measurement - for example, the End Child Poverty charity measured that in May 2019, 18.4 per cent of our children in this borough live in relative poverty, which is a huge number.

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"We have the issue that people assume we don't have much of an issue because as you say we are an affluent area but that makes the gap bigger.

"It s been increasing for a long time, its set to increase further because of Covid.

"Whatever we've been doing as a council in the past hasn't been working, because we've been increasing poverty not decreasing - so what are we going to be doing now that's going to be different, to actually tackle this issue?"

Cllr Halsall responded: "I'll have to get back to you on that because you're asking me about something I don't know.

"We have looked after the people we need to look after in our borough and its our intention to do so - we are a very compassionate council and try to find people who need the help but as i said we can only do so if we have the resources to do so, so we as councillors will have to have some very challenging conversations to ensure those resources continue to exist."