Welcome to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead

Welcome letter from Stephen Evans, Chief Executive

Whether it’s providing services to our communities, supporting some of our most vulnerable residents, driving economic prosperity for the area or creating opportunity for our young people – our drive is our people and places.  This is at the centre of our vision for both the borough and the council – a vision which runs through our Council Plan.  

We now a year into our ambitious four-year Council Plan and have recently reviewed our performance against what we had said we would deliver over the previous year.  Of the 94 actions or ‘deliverables’ set out in the plan for 2024/25 – things we said we would do over the course of the financial year – 75% are either complete or on track, 18% are slightly off track but we still expect to be delivered, only 3% are off track and are not expected to be delivered just yet, and 3% are on hold because we have prioritised over things.  Set within the challenging environment that all councils work in, this represents a strong performance and is testament to the dedication of our councillors and council officers.

The significant financial challenges RBWM has faced are well known and we are taking concrete steps to make the council financially sustainable over the medium-term.  We haven’t allowed our challenging financial position to define us and our work – our councillors and colleagues continue to deliver high quality services and work hard to improve the borough. 

We have been able to balance our budget for 2025/26, due to exceptional support from government, tied to a comprehensive financial recovery plan. This provides certainty that we can meet our statutory duties for the current year, by being able to increase funding for the services most under pressure - children’s and adults’ social care and housing – marking a positive step forward to tackling the challenges we face.  It has also allowed us to start to put funding back into budgets for areas which were stripped out in previous years. 

We have ambitious plans to deliver savings and transform how services are designed and delivered to make them more efficient, but the scale of our financial challenge means that we will need further financial support to set a balanced budget in future years.  We do not shy away from that and are determined to continue to embrace our challenges head on, delivering against our Council Plan and our Financial Sustainability and Improvement Plan.

As a council team, of both councillors and officers, we are determined to work together, towards our shared vision - putting the people of the borough at the heart of what we do, as we continue to deliver the services that residents value.  This is a crucial role to help us achieve our ambitions and I would like to thank you for your interest.