Would a move to Woking be crazy with the councils massive debt?

[movingtotheburbs]

We are/were planning to move from North London to Woking this spring/summer. We need more space, 2 kids in a 2 bed flat is getting tricky. Woking makes sense as we have family there, but we are worried about the council debt. Would you still move there? Or do you currently live there and have any insights? Any thoughts very welcome, thank you!

If your dcs are already at school then it'll be the case of whatever school has space but I think all Woking schools are good or outstanding. I've never heard anything truly terrible about schools and a lot is largely an assumption that a school in the poorer parts will automatically be bad.

Parts of Horsell (v. nice area) Maybury and Sheerwater (not sought after areas) are school blackspots largely because there are fewer schools in those parts and Maybury and Sheerwater (broadmere) schools are small. Basically closer to the town centre you are, the fewer options you have and more at risk of being allocated a school far away. You generally need to be within a mile of a school to get in at reception allocation, usually closer.

There are some Catholic/COE schools which have different entry criterias. Catholic schools (St Dunstan's, The Marist [west byfleet] and another school that I can't recall the name of are highly sought after as they are feeders for St John's the Baptist senior school which is the best performing in Woking and one the best in Surrey).

West Byfleet, New Haw, Byfleet and Pyrford have a lot of schools so there is generally good availability on the east Woking side (new haw is runnymede). I'm not that familiar with Goldsworth Park or Knaphill areas (we considered buying there but I like being closer to a train station) but goldsworth primary use to be difficult to get a space at. Old Woking/central only really has St Dunstans (Catholic) or Kingfield maybe Send school. I'm not familiar with the West side of Woking.

There are a lot of private schools in Woking but a lot of people with money to pay for them. This frees up spaces in state schools.

Nearly all councils are stuffed. You're actually better of with one that will go into bankruptcy than will destroy services to try and avoid it. I really wouldn't factor that in when choosing an area to live

Typo ..Goldsworth pk

Yes, but council tax will increase a lot as well.

They’ll get rid of assets like playgrounds, parks, bins, open space, verges etc… to Parish/Town Councils. This level of local government can levy what ever precept they want via your council tax.

@Emollienttub Thanks so much that's really good to know, great to have some insight into schools. Do you know much about bout secondaries? Woking high looks good

Could anyone tell me how much you actually pay a month in council tax and how much it's going up by? We are looking at a 3 bed terrace or semi

@florasl It would really suck to lose playgrounds and open spaces, playgrounds in London are amazing so I think we'd really miss them

@movingtotheburbs they won’t get rid of them, they’ll ’gift’ them to Parish
/Town Councils. They’ll take on the management of them and charge through the council tax. They aren’t restricted to the 5ish% increase so they’ll recoup the costs that way. Parish/Town Councils can set their tax level at whatever they want so long as they can justify it.

Surely not as bad as Birmingham?

Actually I believe in terms of debt per resident Woking is way out ahead of all the others. It’s circa 20k debt per resident.

Secondaries are Woking High in Horsell, Winston Churchill in St John’s, St John the Baptist in Westfield area, Bishop David Brown in Sheerwater. There are plenty of private options too.

Depends on which council tax band you are in. Expect massive hikes if it goes bust. Like up to doubling.

If you can't cover that, you might be in trouble.

I’d look at Ripley or Send. There isn’t a leisure centre but they both have a family friendly village vibe with lots of events such as Christmas Fair, fireworks & a good primary school in Send. Nice family places to live with easy access to Woking and Guildford.

We currently pay £2,200 a year council tax. Is a 3 bed in Woking massively more than this?

Yep.

i have lost track slightly of timing but this April might be the first post-going-bust rise

We (me, DH, and 2 DC 10 and 7) live in Woking and have been here 6 years now. We moved out of London for similar reasons and I honestly have no regrets. Although we clearly have issues with the council, we haven't seen too much of an impact so far - most of it will likely be reclaimed through price increases (council taxes, car parking, admissions etc). The library for example is run by Surrey County Council so that won't be affected.

We love it here and can't see ourselves moving far now. As for council tax, we're waiting for the bill for 2024/25 but this year we paid £275 per month for a Band E property.

I don’t think this is true. If a council has to resort to issuing a section 114 notice, the government will probably appoint Very Expensive Commissioners to take over the council’s finances and try to balance the books. The commissioners will normally make drastic cuts to services in order to achieve this and the local authority will have to pay the sizeable cost of hiring the commissioners.

Whilst councils aren’t technically allowed to go bankrupt, the government have made it clear that they won’t provide any financial help to councils who can no longer balance their books. The crisis in social care funding is a national issue, but the government has conveniently washed its hands of it and told individual councils that it’s their problem to solve.

However, as PP’s have said, the government might well give certain councils permission to increase the rate of council tax by more than 4.99% without a referendum.

I work for a local council that is trying to stave of 114. Same with my wife (different on). obviously not naming them. The services are going to be deeply affected. Theres very little in it between those locally that have announced 114 and those desperately trying to avoid it.

I would just say if you have any suspicion that your kids might have SEN then do not do it. However, Surrey pay for that. Who are spectacularly shit BTW. Think of what council services you might need over the norm.

I do have friends who have moved out and there house value took a hit, so maybe it's a good time for a discount.

Birmingham City Council have gone bankrupt - they are increasing our Council Tax by 10% and they aren’t holding a referendum - we’re just going to have to pay up

Hi, we are outside woking. I am not a fan of the town itself - we don't tend to go there much but it is fast links to London.

There is much lesser known station called brookwood with fast trains (one stop outside of Woking).

We have a lovely quality of life being rural but close to Guildford or Bracknell.

Lots for children do - spectrum, wisley, country parks

SEN is in crisis all over the country, and you have to take constant legal action just to be able to force them to educate disabled kids at the baseline that statute mandates. It's not even the LA's fault - I really like our caseworkers, who basically have to stand under Niagara Falls with buckets, and orders to stem the flow. The LAs have all been given massively onerous duties and no funds with which to meet them. Council tax doesn't touch the sides so they just ignore the law.

A decade and more of starving public services has had the inevitable effect.

I live just outside Woking. You can live in Send, Ripley, West Clandon (train station) Burpham, Merrow. These all are close to Woking but fall under Guildford BC. Although to be fair, it sounds like they are close on Woking BC in terms of debt 🤔. The public transport links from Send are not great but that is the closest village to Woking (around 10 mins drive) that is not under their council.
Have attached WBC tax bands for reference.Tax bands

As others have pointed out borough councils do not run education, libraries, social care etc. That’s all done by the county council, qnd while Surrey has its problems it is not bankrupt.

The services that borough councils run that have the most impact on residents are waste and recycling, parks and recreation, and planning.