Slough council votes against 2026/27 and medium-term budget plans

Slough council’s budget will need to be reconsidered after councillors voted against a financial plan that aims to have the authority ‘stand on its own two feet’ by 2028/29.

Local authorities across the country must set a balanced budget every spring in time for the start of a new financial year.

A Slough full council meeting yesterday (Thursday), heard that the 2026/27 budget was a ‘budget of reform’, helping the authority ‘stand on its own two feet’ by the end of the medium-term financial strategy to 2028/29.

But councillors ultimately voted against the budget, with the financial plans due to be reconsidered on Thursday next week.

The council’s lead member for finance, Councillor Puja Bedi (Con, Colnbrook and Poyle) said: “This budget says clearly, Slough will not stand still, Slough will not retreat, and Slough will not return to the mistakes of the past.

“We are rebuilding reserves, we are modernising services, we are investing in infrastructure, we are protecting children and vulnerable adults, and we are doing so whilst keeping the pressure off taxpayers and restoring this council’s independence from exceptional financial support.

The budget papers set out that council tax will be increased by 4.99 per cent for the next financial year, kept at the national cap.

By 2028/29, Slough will also need ‘no further’ exceptional financial support (EFS) from the Government – a type of borrowing to help the local authority fund day-to-day spending.

For 2026/27, the council plans to borrow £42.9million of EFS and £22.4million in 2027/28.

Cllr Bedi said the budget includes a ‘prudent financial buffer against financial shocks’.

The budget report includes savings of £15.45million for 2026/27, expected to grow to £37million by 2028/29.

But a £15.5million overspend for the current financial year is also included, with the savings for 2026/27 ‘likely to be depleted by this’, the report added.

Opposition councillors questioned the budget and doubted that the savings over the medium term will be delivered.

Cllr Pavitar Kaur Mann (Lab, Britwell) said: “Listening to that presentation, you would think we were living in a sunny uplift utopia of Slough.

“If anything, it’s quite clear that that presentation by the [Conservative] administration just shows that they’re living in cloud cuckooland and how far removed they are from the reality facing our local residents.”