SLOUGH Borough Council will not be purchasing any new properties until its financial mess is sorted as councillors approve recovery strategy.
Reports outlining changes requiring “strong, vibrant, and clear leadership” were unanimously backed by councillors at a full council meeting on Thursday, September 23, so the local authority can “survive financially”.
Slough became the third local authority in England to freeze all non-essential spending and is currently forecasting a blackhole of over £200m in the next five years if urgent action is not taken.
The debt repayment and financial management strategy were composed to stabilise the council’s accounts and will require vast cuts in many services, including those that have been seen as “untouchable”, and reduce its staffing levels.
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It is not known what the impact to residents will be but cabinet councillors and their director will go through a ‘high-level service review’ to see what cuts could be made. By May 2022, all services will have gone through a “radical review”.
The council is eyeing to sell up to £600m-worth of its assets, which are valued at £1.2b, in the next five years to pay back its ‘untenable’ levels of borrowing, which stands at £760m.
It is estimated £200m of that figure will be used to cover finance restrictions ordered by government within the first two years.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Dexter Smith (Con: Colnbrook with Poyle) sought reassurance from the council leader, Cllr James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green), if this authority will stop new purchases of assets.
Cllr Swindlehurst replied: “Absolutely not. That’s all stopped. We haven’t had a commercial committee meeting for months.
“We’ve been focusing all of our attention on preparing the plans needed to adjust ourselves to the financial position we are in.”
The council has over £230m of short-term borrowing maturing in the next seven months. Steven Mair, chief finance officer, said Slough cannot sell enough assets within that time period to erase that debt but hopes the local authorities the council is in debt with will extend the due date of the loans.
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It is not known how many local authorities Slough is in debt with – but Mr Mair said they are engaging with the government and treasury as a “plan B” if a portion of local authorities the borough is in debt with don’t rollover.
It was heard the council will be submitting a capitalisation direction to government, which asks to use capital funds in the revenue budget, in October with a refined figure.
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