SLOUGH council will need government supervision as it digs itself out of a financial hole – but who are the commissioners that could be paid £100,000 to help.

Following two damning reports looking into the authority’s governance and finances, the government will appoint a team of supervisors sometime this month to oversee improvements for the next three years.

Slough Borough Council (SBC) will have the power to make its decisions during this process – but if the commissioners see the council is lacking to do the work needed and the 42 recommendations set out by the damning reports, they will be given reserved powers to tackle the weaknesses identified.

These include:

  • The governance and scrutiny of strategic decision-making by the council.
  • The strategic financial management of the council.
  • The oversight of collection of revenues and the distribution of benefits by the council.
  • Appointment and dismissal of statutory officers

READ MORE: What do the two damning reports say about Slough Council?

Once appointed, they will be on the council’s payroll and are expected to be paid periodically in the range of a chief executive of a local authority, which could be over £100,000 per annum, throughout the three years they are in post.

When Northamptonshire County Council issued a section 114, which freezes all non-essential spending, in 2018, it paid its three commissioners up to £800 a day.

In a leaked recording passed on to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, SBC leader James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) said: “We are obliged to pay for them [the commissioners] because it is part of punishing failure, as it were, as you don’t get a free pass.”

During their time at the council, they will be visiting Slough numerous times and writing a series of reports to the government to update them on the progress the council is making to fix its financial and governance troubles.

James Swindlehurst

James Swindlehurst

Cllr Swindlehurst said: “They are, in some ways, quite reluctant to directly get the council to take a different decision they were going to take because they become more liable if they do that.

“But if they take the view we are not taking the steps required to resolve our finances, they will certainly direct us in that way.

“In the end, their whole time with Northamptonshire, they didn’t use their powers but they have the powers so they can and act as a proper sense of challenge and threat to us.”

It is not yet known how many commissioners will be appointed and what their roles will be. However, teams have ‘usually’ consisted of retired council chief executives.

READ MORE: Slough Council's "unparalleled record of failure" slammed by opposition

The team for Slough could be made up of lead and financial commissioners.

A lead commissioner will give direction to the team appointed by the government and the council to make sure it is delivering the improvements. A financial commissioner will make sure improvements are being made to its money management, such as proper budgetary controls.

Croydon Council, which also issued section 114 in 2020, had commissioners overseeing its commercial and asset disposal and its adult social care.

The government will announce SBC’s commissioners and their roles later this year.