Elections to Reading Borough Council took place on 3 May 2012, with 16 council seats up for election. The Labour Party gained Church, Katesgrove, Redlands, Kentwood and Caversham wards, giving them a working majority and control of the council. The Conservative Party lost three seats but gained Peppard ward from an independent. The Liberal Democrats lost two seats but held Tilehurst ward, a seat they had lost the previous year to the Conservative Party. The Green Party gained Park ward from Labour but failed to make gains elsewhere seeing their percentage of the borough-wide vote fall slightly.
After the election, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Seats | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | +4 | |||
| 12 | -2 | |||
| 4 | -2 | |||
| 3 | +1 | |||
| 1 | -1 | |||
| Labour gain from No overall control | ||||