Slough's current and former leaders row over financial crisis

The former leader of SBC Sohail Munawar has hit back at current leader, councillor James Swindlehurst, saying he “inherited” a balanced budget with “sufficient and healthy” funds with borrowing “under control”.

The accounts were signed off by external auditors with “no issues highlighted”.

He accused Cllr Swindlehurst of “playing the innocent victim” and is trying to pass the blame onto him that the financial crisis, which forced the council to freeze all non-essential spending, stemmed from his leadership.

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Cllr Swindlehurst has previously said some of the problems they are facing came from the former leader’s 2016/17 budget, adding it was based on “flawed financial advice”.

Mr Munawar was SBC leader for 18 months and resigned in 2017 following claims he forwarded a pornographic video to colleagues. He denied any wrongdoing.

In an email sent to all Slough councillors, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he wrote: “There has been so much mismanagement of funds under this leadership. Instead of taking responsibility, he is instead trying to place the blame on my shoulders.

“There have been some very obvious items of poor strategy, or should I say, lack of strategy and poor decisions due to his total lack of interest in running the council and instead has spent crucial time on political manoeuvring which has had a catastrophic impact on Slough.”

Former leader Sohail Munawar

In response, the current SBC leader James Swindlehurst retained his predecessor’s budget was based on “flawed financial advice” from officers he appointed where the council’s new financial team have found problems stemming from Mr Munawar’s leadership.

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He said: “The large sums required to restore our finances stem from the removal of these provisions in Mr Munawar’s period of leadership.

“Of particular note is the removal of forward provisions in the revenue budget to protect against capital borrowing (which rose from £178 million to £323 million during Mr Munawar’s 18 month tenure as leader of the council), this issue alone is likely to cost upwards of £50 million to resolve.”

However, Cllr Swindlehurst didn’t shy away from his share of the responsibility of the issues risen under his leadership and has formally apologised for where things have gone “awry”