Lib Dem candidate Mike Giles says the Budget gave Earley and Woodley almost nothing it asked for, and 13,630 band E to H homes miss the £100 energy payment.
The Liberal Democrat candidate for Earley and Woodley says Wednesday’s Budget delivered “almost none” of the five things he asked the constituency’s MP, Yuan Yang, to press the Chancellor for.
Cllr Mike Giles wrote to Ms Yang on 16 October, pointing out that as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor she had a seat close to the Budget. The day after it, his verdict is short: “I asked the local MP to press the Chancellor on five things that matter to Earley and Woodley. The Budget delivered almost none of them.”
His release says Ms Yang’s office declined to respond to the letter.
Energy bills and the £100 payment
The largest local point in the release is about who misses out on the Budget’s main help with bills. The Budget document launches a £2.6 billion Household Energy Payment: “a £100 payment directly into bank accounts from January 2027 for households in England in council tax bands A-D”, reaching up to 20 million homes.
Mr Giles’s release puts the number of Earley and Woodley homes in bands E to H at 13,630 of 42,490, about one in three, citing the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax stock of properties for 2026. Those households “will get nothing”, it says.
The Budget does contain a second measure the release does not mention: the cut to VAT on household electricity is extended to July 2027, which the Treasury expects to take around £50 off the annual price cap in April 2027. That applies whatever the council tax band.
The “over £200” rise in the release comes from two published figures. Ofgem’s cap went from £1,663 to £1,723 a year on 1 October, and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s October forecast says the cap “peaks at around £1,875 in Q1 2027” (paragraph 2.22). From the summer’s £1,663 to that peak is £212. On water, the release says there “was also no help with rising water bills”.
Income tax
The release says income tax thresholds “stay frozen until 2031, pulling more people into higher tax bands”. Mr Giles’s party wants the personal allowance and the employee National Insurance threshold raised from £12,570 to £15,000. His figures: median taxpayer income in Earley and Woodley is around £33,700, and on that income the change would save £486 in income tax (20 per cent of £2,430) and £194 in National Insurance (8 per cent of £2,430), so £680 a year.
“Income tax thresholds also remain frozen, meaning a Government stealth tax on working people,” he said.
Health and care, and the University of Reading
The release says the Budget announced no relief from the employer National Insurance rise for GP surgeries, NHS dentists, pharmacies, care providers or hospices, which was the third ask in the letter.
The fourth was opposition to the £925-a-year International Student Levy, which the letter argued would put pressure on the University of Reading. The levy goes ahead. A new government impact assessment, as reported by The PIE News on 28 October, puts the cost to UK universities at £1,010m in lost fees over the first three years, up from the £900m the government estimated last year.
Data centres and Thames Valley Park
The fifth ask was for data centres not to be left running on gas. The Budget says the government will set out a new Data Centre Covenant, and the covenant itself allows “a tightly controlled framework to permit on site generation until a grid connection can be secured”, only for “exceptionally strategic projects”. It does not say that power has to be clean, which is Mr Giles’s complaint. It does say developers “should design projects to capture and reuse waste heat where there is a viable local user”, and that strategic data centres should agree a Local Benefit Plan with the community.
Both Mr Giles and Ms Yang lodged comments on the Thames Valley Park application, reference 262274, on 28 October, the day before comments closed.
Mr Giles objects, writing in a personal capacity and not for South Oxfordshire District Council. “New investment in the park is welcome. But as it stands, this scheme would run on gas for years, waste heat that could warm local buildings, and offer little to local people,” he wrote. His objection says only 1.8MW of grid electricity is available to the site at first, against an expected peak demand of 110MW, with 2037 as the backstop date for a bigger connection, and that the applicant’s own Energy Strategy Report estimates around 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 between 2028 and 2037. He asks for a firm end date for gas, an annual emissions cap, a delivered heat network, a higher biodiversity net gain than the 10 per cent legal minimum, and published job figures, and says the site could instead be wanted for a new Royal Berkshire Hospital or homes.
Ms Yang’s comment, written “in my capacity as the MP for Earley and Woodley”, says she attended the public meeting with Sonning and Earley residents on 16 October. She writes that Britain “needs enough data centres to keep the economy running” and notes the prospective jobs, but that the data centre “will be unable to connect to the grid in the next decade”, and its emissions “would severely impact Wokingham Borough Council’s ability to achieve its zero carbon target, if not render them impossible”. She also raises biodiversity, the lack of a noise assessment and the loss of the site for housing, and concludes: “I cannot support this planning application until the above reassurances are met.” Mr Giles’s release says she “stopped short of objecting”; her comment does not use the word.
The application will be decided by Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee, not by the Treasury or either politician.
What the candidate says
“Households are set to see their energy bills shoot up in the new year, while there was no help on water bills,” Mr Giles said. “The Liberal Democrats have a plan to cut bills and taxes, and deliver economic growth. It’s clear that Earley and Woodley needs an MP who genuinely puts their interests first.”
Mr Giles is not a Wokingham borough councillor; he represents Sonning Common ward on South Oxfordshire District Council. He was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in September. His original letter is also on his Substack.
We have not put these points to Ms Yang’s office for this story, and we would publish a response from her on the same terms.
What it means for you
If your home is in council tax bands A to D, the £100 Household Energy Payment is due from January 2027 and, the Budget says, will be delivered through the council tax system. If you are not sure of your band, our council tax bands page explains how to check. The electricity VAT cut applies to everyone until July 2027.
Sources: press release from Cllr Mike Giles, 29 October 2026, and the documents linked in it: Budget 2026 (HM Treasury, 28 October 2026); OBR Economic and fiscal outlook, October 2026; the Data Centre Covenant (gov.uk); comments by Cllr Giles and Yuan Yang MP on Wokingham application 262274, published 28 October 2026; The PIE News, 28 October 2026. Checked 29 October 2026.
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