Lib Dem Councillors are working to get Slough out of the mess created by Tory Policies and a Labour Council

Cllr Frank O’Kelly (Lib Dem councillor for Cippenham Village ward) details how the Lib Dem Cllrs are trying to tackle Slough Council’s serious financial problems caused by Tory Policies and a Labour Council.

On 9 March 2022, the annual official Section 25 Report from the Council’s new Director of Finance said, to fully recover, Slough’s badly-run Labour Council would have to carry on making cuts in vital services until 2029 because: 

the deficit: “Is of a magnitude which has not been seen before across the UK” and ”The Council has no complete and fully accurate accounts since 2015/16” 

In early 2023, Slough’s Labour leaders agreed with the Tory Government that the town’s Council tax could go UP by 10% in 2023/24 AND UP by 10% again in 2024.  

What had happened to create this situation?

Slough Council issued a section 114 notice - the equivalent of bankruptcy - after it "discovered" it was £760m in debt.

According to the auditors the financial mismanagement under Labour's leadership was unprecedented. 

The Council had been operating without accurate accounts since 2016.

Decisions made by the Labour administration saw borrowing increase from £180 million in 2016-17 to £760m in 2020/21.

The extremely weak professional leadership did not perform and were not held to account.

Lib Dems are working with the current administrations to help fix the council and support the residents

This link provides a full record of dialogues between Slough Borough Council and the Government on the severity of the financial crisis and the interventions the Government has been taking in order to try to secure the survival of Slough Borough Council:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/intervention-at-slough-borough-council

This link provides details about how Slough Lib Dems are attempting to ensure that Slough Council gets the same level of payments from developers as other councils obtain by using the combination of two  approaches or methods that Slough Labour councillors failed to use in Slough:  “Slough should get millions more from developers” – Slough Lib Dems - Slough Liberal Democrats