Who's at fault for the financial crisis/clearing up Slough Council's mess

Last week, Preston Brooker (Letters, February 16) complained that a previous letter blamed Labour for problems with Slough Council. But, such was the depth of the extreme crisis into which Labour plunged Slough Council during their rule from 2008-May 2023, that, of course, the previous letter was right to blame Labour for continuing problems with Council services.

Progress in clearing up after such a dire crisis depends, in part, on recognising the depth of the crisis, and identifying causes. Here, readers do not have to take my word for it, but can turn to the first formal report from independent Commissioners sent in to sort things out.

Their first published report, dated 9 June 2022, said about the Labour-run Slough Borough Council (SBC): “At present SBC is therefore spending some 78% above its funding ability so significant changes are required to bring this back into balance.” The report emphasised that the Labour-run Council’s problems were so large they could not be fully sorted out even during the 3 years of the Commissioners’ remit: “a much longer period will be required.”

So, whose fault is it?  There is increasing recognition that the Tory Government has been under-funding local councils for years: many Tory Councils bitterly complain about their own Government’s failures. But, few other councils got into as big a mess as Labour-run Slough.

The Council astonishingly failed to get the accounts signed-off for years. Commissioners listed other failures, including the interest on Council debts: “In 2020/21, a sum of £34m should have been included in the budget but only £40,000 was provided. In addition, SBC was wrongly charging revenue costs to capital; had not made appropriate provision for items such as bad debts or insurance; had run down its reserves; and had misused capital receipts.”

The Commissions were highly critical of some Council officers, but they said: “What is surprising is that no Councillor seemed to notice.” Under Labour things were made even worse by “a poor leadership culture which made it difficult to speak truth to power at both officer and member level.” This confirms stories about what happened to any brave Labour councillors who did try to highlight problems: the leadership dealt with them severely.

So, where are we now, less than a year after Labour lost power? Some underlying problems are being addressed. Good new senior Council officers seem to have been recruited, along with improvements made to the leadership culture. But, the unfortunate residents of Slough will continue to have to face the consequences of the many failures of former Labour Cllr Brooker’s colleagues for years ahead in terms of reduced services and higher Council Tax.