SLOUGH taxpayers will see council tax rise by a near three per cent as the authority faces a £479m black hole and needs to make £20m-worth of savings.
Residents will see a 1.99 per cent spike in council tax and a one per cent increase in the adult social care precept on their bill – an increase of £44.56 for band D properties.
This is the maximum permitted without going to a referendum.
Here’s how much you will be paying in council tax, including parish, Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, and Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue precepts:
This comes as the council is facing a ten-year £479m deficit and its borrowing quadrupled since 2016 to £760m. It will need to make £20m-worth of savings every year until 2028/29 – which is “cost-cutting to a degree not seen anywhere else” - and sell up to £600m of its assets.
Having no complete and fully accurate accounts since 2015/16, no proper management of its budgets, and failed corporate leadership led up to the council issuing a section 114, effectively declaring bankruptcy, and freezing all non-essential spending.
The £479m could increase if the council cannot deliver £20m savings a year and if more things are unearthed from the past accounts.
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In chief finance officer Steven Mair’s statement on the budget, called a section 25 report, he stated Slough’s situation “is of a magnitude which has not been seen before across the UK.”
The 2022/23 revenue budget, money used for day-to-day spending such as adult social care, is set at £107.6m. But Slough Borough Council needs an extra £84m, which represents 78 per cent more than its budget.
From the previous financial years, the council is also facing a £223m deficit, requiring the council to request a £307m capitalisation direction to government, essentially using capital money as revenue. The council is estimating a further £172m deficit in the years after, totalling £479m.
Speaking at a full council meeting on Thursday, March 10, Cllr Rob Anderson (Lab: Britwell & Northborough), lead member for financial oversight, said: “The budget from a financial point of view is still extremely challenging. This isn’t the end of it.
“This is the first step, us digging the foundations on a multi-layer recovery process and it’s going to take a number of years.
“No council has ever faced this level of challenge before and it shows how quickly things can go from well managed to chaos without the right leadership and oversight, and what we’ve got to make sure going forward is that we have that proper oversight at all levels to make sure the budgets do work to provide this council with proper services for the residents that they need.”
The Department of Levelling Up, Communities, and Housing said it was ‘minded to’ approve its request, meaning it is likely to agree when the council closes its accounts from 2018/19 and signed off by external auditors.
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This is so the government has definitive figures of the council’s financial position as the £479m could increase, but council leader James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) previously said there should be no more “huge surprises.”
This letter gave the council the “comfort” to balance the 2022/23 budget. Mr Mair is also “prepared” to sign the section 25 report because of the letter, despite stating it is “impossible to give an assurance” on the authority’s finances.
To make its debt “more manageable,” the council will be stretching its repayment over a 20-year period as it is too gargantuan to pay off in one year.
Monies spent on projects and works to improve and maintain the borough’s infrastructure, known as the capital programme, is £219m for the next five years.
Borrowing for the programme has reduced by £90m and has been stretched from three years to five years.
However, £37m will still be borrowed to cover repair works on the council’s housing stock, health and safety checks, among other projects.
Conservative leader Dexter Smith (Colnbrook with Poyle) characterised the budget as the “leap in the dark budget” as it relies on heavy savings and asset sales to bridge its financial gaps if the government gives the go-ahead.
He said: “This is not a critique of the financial team or our officers, but it is a critique of the Labour administration that continues to run this council. A critique of their allocation of resources and their priorities in the face of financial meltdown.
“[Labour] try to defend their pet projects while we struggle to deliver even statutory services to a basic standard.
“Time and again, it is the poorest and most vulnerable in this town being hit the hardest by this Labour administration’s above-inflation increases in council fees and charges, and this Labour administration offer to the government to cut £20m from spending this year and every year for the next seven years.
“A Labour promise to bring austerity to this town for a generation. I bet we won’t see that in their election manifesto.”
Cllr Smith added: “This is beginning to sound like Mission Impossible. I expect Tom Cruise is on his way because as we all know no expense is ever spared to Slough Borough Council.”
The ruling Labour group passed the 2.99 per cent council tax increase, the 2022/23 budget, the five-year capital programme, and treasury management strategy, whereas the opposing Tories abstained.
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