‘Difficult decisions’ about what services Slough Borough Council provides to residents could be on the way top officials have warned – as property sell-offs are making less money than hoped.

Slough Borough Council had hoped to raise £600 million from property sales after going effectively bankrupt in 2021. But the amount it has raised so far has fallen far short of what the council had hoped – causing council leaders to have to rethink the plan.

Now top council officials have hinted that if they can’t balance their books by selling off assets, they may have to look elsewhere. One senior official said: “Slough is in a position where it is trying to manage itself out of this financially challenging environment.

“We have to deliver the best services with the resources we’ve got available but there may be some very difficult decisions that have to go along with that. Can we deliver everything we currently do?”

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Slough Borough Council was given a ‘capitalisation direction’ programme by the government after going effectively bankrupt in 2021. This is permission to use the money gained from selling properties to pay off debts and fund services.

Slough Borough Council initially believed it had £600 million worth of assets it could sell as it began its programme of sell-offs in 2021. At one point it had hoped that it could raise £400 million of this by March this year, and the other £200 million after that.

But a report to leading councillors last week suggests that the values of council properties has fallen since 2021 ‘due to a number of external factors such as market conditions and interest rates borrowing’. It says this ‘causes a challenge’ in hitting the £600 million target.

Slough Borough Council had only raised £223.5 million from property sales by March 2024 – just over half than what it had planned. Council officials now say the target of raising £600 million by 2027 is ‘unrealistic’.

Now the council officials are re-evaluating the council’s properties so that they can reconsider which of them should be sold off and when.

But they have suggested that the council might have to raise or save money elsewhere if they find property sales won’t bring in enough cash. The warning from a senior council official came at a meeting of council leaders tasked with overseeing asset sales on Thursday September 12.

The officer said: “The government didn’t give Slough new money. Slough has had to sell its assets to pay down its debt.

“Can we continue on that basis now we know we haven’t got the asset value we originally believed to be there? We now need to have a different conversation about what is the recovery plan for Slough.”

They added: “Slough needs to be sustainable, and Slough needs to have the services its residents need in relation to its demands – a really difficult balance.”

Officers also said re-evaluating the council’s assets will be a ‘significant piece of work’ but they hope to have it done ‘this side of Christmas’.