Cash-strapped Slough Council 'not sustainable' without huge tax hike

In order to protect services that the Labour-run Slough Borough Council (SBC) delivers, Cllr Rob Anderson (Lab: Britwell & Northborough), lead member for financial oversight, said they had to increase council tax by nearly 10 per cent from April.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Anderson said because of high inflation, demand pressures, and the local authority’s financial position, SBC won’t be “sustainable” without it and needs to boost its council tax base.

Other unitary authorities have households that average on council tax band D. The average in Slough, on the other hand, is band C, meaning it collects less tax as residents are paying for less.

READ MORE: Slough Council insists it will have low tax rate despite huge hike

Cllr Anderson explained by boosting the borough’s council tax base, SBC will be able to collect an additional £2.5m to balance this year’s budget and protect services.

He said: “We’ve got a very low council tax base and that’s a historic problem dating back to 1993 of the housing valuations. So, the only thing we can do is what we’ve done, which is to ask for this [council tax] increase.”

The government allowed all local authorities to increase the levy by 4.99 per cent. Anything above that will either require a local referendum or ministers’ approval.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove gave the go-ahead for SBC, Thurrock, and Croydon to raise council tax above 4.99 per cent due to their financial failings.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove (Image: PA)

Slough Borough Council effectively declared bankruptcy in 2021 after it unearthed it had a £760m borrowing bill to pay off. It needs to sell off up to £600m of its assets and make a £20m saving this year and about £14m annual savings in the following years.

Cllr Anderson said: “We’re sorting out our financial problems in terms of the debt by selling assets to pay it off, but we still got an underlining problem because we’ve got a huge increase in our population, demand in children’s services, demand in adult social services.

“All those things are costing more and more with inflation at 10 per cent and the only way can fund those things is with a further tax increase.”

He also insisted that Slough will still have one of the lowest council tax rates in the Thames Valley even with the huge hike and the local authority is putting more money into its council tax support scheme to protect about 3,500 households, who will pay no council tax.

READ MORE: Slough's huge council tax hike labelled a "slap in the face"

When asked if SBC will put up council tax by another 10 per cent next year, the finance lead said they won’t know until the government announces its funding settlement for 2024/25.

Opposition councillors criticised the “slap in the face” tax hike as “disgusting” and believed Labour are ‘not on the side of the people of Slough’ as locals were not able to have a say in this proposal.

Cllr Anderson said people will be able to have their say in May during the all-out election where every councillor is standing.

When asked if he thinks this 9.99 per cent council tax hike will hurt Labour’s control of SBC, he said he was “confident” his group will put a decent case to residents on how they will manage the financial crisis.

Slough Borough Council (Image: Google Maps)

He said: “The only way to find out is to go out and knock on 30,000 doors, which is what we do every year, and people are not shy in telling us what they think, and I know exactly what they are going to think about this rise.

“They’re not going to like it but then they’ve got to factor in what is the alternative and decide whether anybody else can do better.”