Thunderbirds-themed hotel amid Slough council assets sell-off

Slough Borough Council owns the freehold of the 244-room Moxy Hotel

A debt-ridden local authority is set to sell off assets including a Thunderbirds-themed hotel, a multi-storey car park and a former police station.

Cash-strapped Slough Borough Council is aiming to reduce its £760m borrowing debt.

So far, the council has accumulated £172m from its asset sales.

The council said the sales would mean it would have "absolute certainty" over the level of debt repayment.

The Thunderbirds-themed hotel honours the show's creator Gerry Anderson and was opened in 2021

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation TV series Thunderbirds was filmed in Slough in the 1960s

The local authority has been constrained since last year when it issued a section 114 notice, which limits its spending powers to essential services only.

The Labour-run local authority had previously invested heavily in property and land for development.

These include the 244-room Moxy Hotel, valued at £20.2m, which incorporates a Thunderbirds lounge as a tribute to the puppet TV show, which was filmed in Slough in the 1960s.

Its portfolio also includes land and buildings that were earmarked for housing, including land at Langley College, Rochford Gardens and the Merry Makers pub on Trelawney Avenue.

So far, £172m has been raised from asset sales and the council believes that figure will increase to over £200m before April, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council previously invested heavily in property and land for development

It has to pay back £406m of its short-term loans by September.

Rob Anderson, lead member for financial oversight, said if these eight assets are sold the debt will be paid back in full.

He said: "Interest rates are going up and we know that if we can repay that temporary borrowing, that pools in a massive amount of cash that we were going to have to pay in borrowing costs over the next year back into the budget.

"It gives us absolute certainty because the rest of the borrowing will at least be long-term and at fixed rates, meaning we will know exactly what we have to do."

He said the council would be back in its pre-2016 position of temporarily borrowing for short-term "strategically important" items.

It is also planning to move workers out of the headquarters it bought for £39m four years ago.