From the Leader: The Borough Council and the local voluntary and charitable sector

Leaders and volunteers of charities devote countless hours to their roles and are understandably committed to securing the best possible deal from the council.  Unfortunately, however, it is not always possible for the borough council to meet their wishes.

That general observation brings me to the particular case of The Cowshed, a Berkshire-wide charity which provides clothing and other essentials to people in need. For the past three years it has occupied, rent free, Rubra 2, a council-owned building off Molly Millars Lane in Wokingham Town. The Cowshed moved into Rubra 2 after its lease on a private commercial building came to an end. The council came to the rescue, albeit on a temporary basis. The Cowshed knew that Rubra 2 was only available in the short-term, and that it would have to begin to search for a permanent home. The council reminded The Cowshed of this on three occasions – in the summer of 2025, March this year and again two months ago – and even offered The Cowshed use of the council’s commercial agent to help identify new premises. As it is, The Cowshed, by staying rent-free in Rubra 2 for three years, has effectively been gifted about £1.2 million by the council.

The Cowshed wants to stay in Rubra 2. Sadly, that is not possible. The Cowshed benefitted from a temporary arrangement until the council needed the building and we are currently considering plans to repurpose the site, including an option to help some of the least well-off people in the borough, which will also enable us to save money in the long run.  In a time of great financial pressure on the council (we are losing more than £43 million of government support over the next three years), getting best value out of our assets is vitally important.

Considerations of fairness also make it difficult to accede to The Cowshed’s wishes. If we were to give The Cowshed a special deal, other local charities, which make an equally valuable contribution locally, would rightly feel aggrieved that they were not being treated as favourably.

We have recently introduced a charitable lets policy to avoid special deals and give all interested parties the opportunity to bid for new leases on council-owned properties that become available. We cannot depart from that new policy the moment one charity asks for special treatment.

I hope you can see that the borough council needs to make decisions based not on emotion but on best use of resources and on equity and fairness.

We will continue to support The Cowshed as best we can, just as we would any other charity, but we have reached the point at which we need the building back, as The Cowshed has always known would happen.