Slough council sets up 'war rooms' to nail down cuts and combat £17m budget gap

‘War rooms’ have been set up at Slough Borough Council as the local authority fights to rein in a ballooning £17 million budget gap.

All departments across Slough council are investigating how they can make savings as part of its battle to balance the books, a Cabinet meeting heard on Monday.

Slashing council tax concessions for unemployed people in Slough and a reinvigorated plan to sell off council assets are just some of the new measures already penned in ahead of next year's budget. 

At the meeting in Observatory House, finance lead Councillor Wal Chahal (Langley Marish, Con) said a ‘massive’ and ‘intensive’ savings drive was underway.

But he cautioned: “Even with that massive amount of work and the savings that we discovered – uncovered should we say - the gap in the 25/26 budget is £17.35 million.

“That’s an eyewatering number.”

Cllr Chahal said the council was discussing seeking government support worth more than £10 million, but this alone would not be enough.

He also discussed a report on Slough council’s new Target Operating Model (TOM) prepared for the meeting.

Although not yet finalised, the model is hoped to shape the council’s recovery and its future: outlining how ‘the breadth and depth’ of services available to residents will be much reduced.

To reach this target and address the savings needed, Cllr Chahal said ‘all departments’ were considering their budgets.

“I want to say thank you for the finance team and to all departments – the intensity that has taken place to look at all our spend within the council, departmental budgets,” Cllr Chahal said.

"The war rooms, I call them war rooms – I think they’re referred to as project rooms – where we had temporary accommodation, other [departments] come in to look at the granularity of the spend to look and see where savings can be driven out.

“It’s been a massive amount of work.”

The Conservative administration seized control of Slough council in 2023: its reported more than £700 million debt pile; and the unenviable task of trying to right the ship.

To make matters worse, a government report last month found residents had ‘no confidence in the council’ amid its search for savings.

At the meeting Cllr Chahal said: “It’s a thankless and endless task ahead of us.”

Executive director for finance and commercial Annabel Scholes said the TOM report discussed how turbulence at the council was also taking a toll on staff.

“We do acknowledge the impact on our workforce and I think that’s really important to share that impact with you,” Ms Scholes told councillors at the meeting.

“Fundamentally, there has been an awful lot of change here at Slough - we use the term ‘change fatigue’.

“But we are acknowledging the fact that we need to support our workforce.”

Ms Scholes did add that - despite the ‘difficult decisions’ - a near £30 million investment in services was included in the budget proposals.

Financial management director Dave McNamara said Slough council was ‘trying to deliver all the services we can for our residents’ but it could only do so within its financial constraints.

He added: “And that does mean looking at those [services] as we prepare for the actions coming out of the war rooms, making sure that we are preparing for them and we are implementing them.

“It will be challenging but I think we can do it.”