Slough council job cuts will not deliver predicted savings

Almost 50 council workers have lost their jobs as part of a restructuring programme that will not deliver the savings bosses had predicted.

Of 85 Slough Borough Council workers at risk of redundancy, 49 have lost their jobs. The others have either moved to other roles or kept their jobs.

The restructure had initially been expected to save £5.2m in 2021/2022.

However, that saving is now expected to be £2.5m after the council failed to budget for certain services.

The "Our Futures" programme incurred more than £3m in 2020/21 and is forecast to cost a further £2.6m in 2021/22 due to redundancy costs and consultancy support, according to a report, which was presented to members of the employment and appeals committee.

The programme had later been estimated to save £3.5m in 2021/2022.

"However, this excludes DSO productivity pay, music service and some grant funded posts for which the programme omitted the budget and thus nets down to an estimated £2.5m in 2021/22," the report said.

Steven Mair, chief finance officer of Slough Borough Council, said he "didn't know" where the £5.2m figure came from and "assumed" colleagues were anticipating a £1.5m saving in agency staff reductions as a result of the programme, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Waste of money'

Councillors were also warned further restructuring "will be necessary" after the authority had to freeze all non-essential spending due to a predicted financial black hole of £174m by 2025.

The chairman of the committee, Councillor Safdar Ali, said: "There was an objective for this transformation and future programme, and if it hasn't delivered what it is aiming to deliver then all I can think of is a waste of taxpayers' money and time."

Mr Mair said: "The council will have to radically change its position, it will have to downsize, and it will have to look at doing less than it does at the moment simply because of the various impacts we have identified through the section 114 [effectively declaring bankruptcy]."