Council's former HQ mistakenly listed for sale

The advert was live on Tuesday but has since been removed

A council’s former headquarters was mistakenly listed for sale online, it has said.

Slough Borough Council moved out of St Martins Place on Bath Road in 2019 and into its £41m Observatory House HQ.

A spokesperson said St Martins Place is on a list of assets that could be sold to meet massive debts – but is not up for sale yet.

An advert appeared online on Tuesday on a property search engine but has since been removed.

Previously the council said it hoped to turn the building into 64 affordable flats.

The authority hopes to raise about £600m from selling assets.

It had hoped that would have been achieved by March 2027 but a council report said that was “unrealistic” because some sales have been delayed.

The now-removed advert mentioned the site’s location close to Slough’s train station and town centre.

It said: “St Martins Place represents an excellent development or conversion opportunity to deliver a significant residential or alternative use scheme.”

A council spokesperson said: “St Martins Place isn’t for sale right now.

"We have a strong and active programme to bring surplus assets to the market but, on this occasion, the advert was not part of a marketing initiative and has been removed.

“We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.”

At a meeting earlier this month, deputy council leader Wal Chahal said it could not sell all of its assets at once because there would be a “fire sale”.

But he added: “We’ve got to sell a significant amount of our assets to pay off the debt profile that we have otherwise we will be sinking under the debt.”