Residents of Slough will have to ‘foot the bill’ for mountains of debt that the council is struggling to pay off, a lead finance politician has said.

Councillor Wal Chahal made the comments in answer to a question on Slough Borough Council’s struggle to make enough money from property sales.

In a written question, councillor Harjinder Gahir asked: “As reported in the local media, SBC is well behind the target on selling the SBC assets. What effect it will cause to the public services and how you minimise that if any?”

Councillor Chahal replied that property sales were part of the recovery plan imposed on Slough by the government after it went effectively bankrupt in 2021. The government has allowed the council to use hundreds of millions of pounds from property sales to balance its books.

He said: “Asset sales are expected to contribute towards the repayment of the capitalisation of debt incurred up to 2021/22 and to meet the budget shortfall up to 2027/28 when the total level of the capitalisation directive will be £348m.

“Until that debt is paid off, the residents of Slough will have to foot the bill at the cost of lost services and community assets.”