THE takeover of a private block of flats to make it fire-safe could leave taxpayers with a £4 million bill – with no guarantee of getting the money back.

That is the concern of three Slough Borough Councillors who are asking for the takeover of Nova House in Buckingham Gardens to be more closely scrutinised.

The council is in the process of buying the block’s freehold company, Ground Rents Estates 5 Limited (GRE5), to gain ownership of the building before delivering essential improvements.

It comes after Nova House failed government safety tests twice for Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding following the Grenfell disaster.

Councillors James Swindlehurst, Roger Davis and Nora Holledge (all Lab, Cippenham Green), have called in the decision to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for discussion on Monday.

They also say that the council has failed to provide comparative costs for alternative solutions – such as temporarily housing the residents and using its enforcement powers to make GRE5 deliver the improvements. Cllr Swindlehurst praised colleagues for wanting to keep residents safe but said it could be a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction . He said: “The company (GRE5) is within a group of companies so I think it has access to funds.” Up to £4 million may have to be utilised by the council for improvements but leases would still be owned by the apartment buyers – making the authority partly responsible for private investments. Cllr Swindlehurst added: “There could even be a commercial scenario where we pay GRE5 (to do the work) and they pay us back. There are other ways to achieve the money (instead of ownership).”

The council says it has been open that the takeover would cost millions – and no cost could be placed on the lives of residents in the six-storey block. It previously said it did not have confidence that GRE5 could deliver the improvements itself.

A council spokeswoman said this week: “Using enforcement powers would just slow down the process and if the freeholder doesn’t have the capacity to do the work, there is no point in dragging them to court.”

As the takeover was a delegated decision the scrutiny committee cannot overrule it, though further recommendations can be made.