Slough Borough Council sells industrial land for £100m

Multinational company AkzoNoble stopped paint production at the site in 2016

A debt-ridden council has sold a piece of industrial land for £100m that it paid £38m for a year ago.

Slough Borough Council bought the AkzoNoble paint factory site in Wexham Road, Slough, from international real estate company Panattoni.

Plans had already been approved for 1,000 homes there in 2020.

But council leader James Swindlehurst called the sale "probably the single biggest beneficial transaction" he had seen.

The authority needs to sell up to £600m-worth of its properties to reduce its £760m borrowing debt.

It had bought the north end of the site, historically owned by ICI.

Panattoni was granted permission to build the homes, 25% affordable, to the north of the site, and a data centre to the south.

A report revealed the council was supposed to spend at least £250m on its scheme but it did not have a "clear idea" how it would pay it off.

A mix of one to four bedroom flats were planned for the site

The buyer is confidential but could develop the site into a data centre, subject to planning permission, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Rob Anderson, lead member for financial oversight and council assets, said: "Originally, we bought this site with the vision of creating housing, however despite this original vision not being practical in reality, this site has proven to be a very good investment.

"It has been widely reported that we need to sell assets totalling hundreds of millions of pounds; this sale goes a significant way to meeting that target and stabilising the council's financial position for the future," he said.

Mr Swindlehurst said: "Slough is excellently placed due to its location and connectivity and there is an inherent value in land in Slough for both domestic and commercial uses.

"The large-scale profit on the sale of this asset - made in little over a year - reflects the strong growth in demand for sites that can meet data centre, logistics and distribution uses.

"The proceeds from this sale alone will significantly assist the council in its financial recovery."