Slough County Court could be sold off in a bid to raise cash for the debt-ridden council, new plans reveal.

The court on Windsor Road is where non-criminal legal cases – family and civil proceedings – are heard in Slough.

The building is owned by Slough Borough Council. But council leaders are being asked to agree that it should be auctioned off as part of efforts to tackle the authority’s debts.

Council plans say the sale would ‘contribute to the reduction in the council’s future financial commitments, generate disposal receipts at the earliest opportunity and reduce the borrowing’.

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Ownership of the building was transferred from Buckinghamshire County Council in 1994. Although court services are run by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, council documents say the tenant is the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government which recently renewed its five-year lease.

The Observer understands that sale of the asset would not necessarily end the lease. HM Courts and Tribunals says it is ‘committed to delivering justice’ in Slough.

A Slough Borough Council report into the proposed sale also says that, when the auction begins there may be a ‘special purchaser’. This is a buyer who has a special reason for buying the building.

Councillors overseeing asset sales are being asked to recommend the auction to the rest of their colleagues on the cabinet committee at a meeting on Thursday October 17.

A spokesperson for HM Courts and Tribunals said: “We have recently agreed a leasehold agreement on the building and are committed to delivering justice in the Slough community.”