Funding increase for Slough offers ‘cold comfort’ amid budget strain
01:33PM, Saturday 13 December 2025
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Corporate Overview and Scrutiny panel.
Slough Borough Council is expected to see an increase in funding through the Government’s Fair Funding Review 2.0 – but this is a ‘cold comfort’, with other councils expected to receive less as a result.
A progress update on Slough’s budget setting plans for 2026/27, and a medium-term financial strategy for 2026-2030, came before the council’s corporate improvement scrutiny committee at a meeting yesterday (December 9).
The progress report forecasts that, over a four-year period, Slough could see a £20million increase in funding from the Government’s Fair Funding Review.
The scheme was introduced to direct more funding to local authorities in deprived areas across the country.
The final funding amount for Slough has not been published yet but it will have a ‘material impact’ on the council’s finances over the medium-term.
Mark Hak-Sanders, the director for financial management and strategy, said: “We’re likely to see an increase in our funding. We’ve been historically underfunded.”
But Mr Hak-Sanders said the increase is ‘cold comfort’ for the local authority because money is being taken away from other councils in order for it to be redirected to places like Slough.
Slough’s budget setting process for the next financial year started ‘in earnest’ in October, councillors heard.
By March 31, 2026, the council is expected to have £21.3million in its reserves.
But, as it stands, most of this money will be spent to cover the current £17.5million forecast overspend, based on figures from the second quarter of the year.
Ian O’Donnell, the council’s interim executive director of corporate resources, said: “It’s impossible to wave a magic wand at this stage in the year and see that [overspend] go away.
“We will have to deploy our reserves in order to balance the budget position and that will mean that our reserves will be severely depleted.”
He added that an increase in demand for statutory services such as adult social care, children’s services, SEND, and temporary accommodation has put ‘a lot of strain’ on the council.
The report said that these pressures are expected to continue, which could see an additional £11.2million bill on top of the current overspend next year.
The council identified ways to save £12million to control this overspend.
But councillors were sceptical about whether or not these strategies would work, and whether enough money will be saved.
Councillor Christine Hulme (Lab, Herschel Park) said: “It strikes me that some of the stuff that’s been suggested in the past to save money … doesn’t seem to have the desired impact.”
She wanted to know if some saving strategies for this year are ‘absolutely deliverable’.
Mr O’Donnell said the council is already seeing a reduction in spending from a recruitment freeze that has already started and will continue into 2026.
Other saving plans include extending the amount of controlled parking zones in areas across the borough, as well as increasing the income coming in from bus shelters and advertising boards.
But Cllr Pavitar Kaur Mann (Lab, Britwell) said the number of savings proposals for this financial year that have been ‘effectively duplicated’ from the 2025/26 budget plan is ‘striking’.
She wanted assurances that these targets will be achieved for 2026/27.
Mr O’Donnell said: “For each one of these proposals, there will be a delivery plan. We’ll be looking for milestones in those plans, and we will track them during the course of the year.
“That’s a different type of approach and it’s much more focused on holding people to account for delivering the things that we’re committed to in the budget.”
