THE lead commissioner said he was “surprised” to see no top officers acting after Slough Borough Council (SBC) declared bankruptcy.

SBC is needing “unprecedented” support from government for up to eight years in order to get the basics of local government right and to help pay off its £680m borrowing debt and bridge its £479m budget gap.

The commissioners, who were sent in by ministers in December to oversee the council’s recovery, said in a damning report that they were “not certain” the council can restore by itself without further help.

The council officially declared bankruptcy in July 2021. It brought in chief finance officer Steven Mair and his team to rectify historic accounting errors.

READ MORE: Slough Council "still failing" as finances "remain extremely serious"

They initially found SBC was facing a £100m blackhole but that increased to £479m following further findings.

Although works on a financial recovery plan were underway, in the commissioners’ first report, they state “nothing has happened” since they arrived in December.

They wrote: “The whole organisation was in stasis and appeared to be just waiting for commissioners to arrive and set out how to recover whilst trying to carry on some semblance of business as usual. This has resulted in significant time being lost and a lack of direction.”

Slough Observer: Lead commissioner Max CallerLead commissioner Max Caller (Image: Slough Borough Council)

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, lead commissioner Max Caller said he was “surprised” that no one was taking charge with no plan on what to do next.

He added: “It was like the scale of the problem was beyond them, and they were waiting for something to happen.”

Throughout a large portion of time until the commissioners’ December arrival, SBC’s former chief executive Josie Wragg was “off sick,” leaving the council directionless.

The commissioners sacked Mrs Wragg in March for “gross negligence and reckless behaviour”.

Slough Observer: Josie Wragg was sacked earlier this year as the council's chief executiveJosie Wragg was sacked earlier this year as the council's chief executive

This was due to the failed council-wide restructure called ‘Our Futures,’ which £2.8m was spent on consultants Gate One who have little experience in local government, which reduced officer capacity at SBC that they are now needing to recover.

Because Josie was not around, no one was taking charge. Instead, there was a rotation of senior officers being temporary chief executive.

Mr Caller said: “Councillors are lay people. They can say to officers ‘give us advice, what should we do?’ But the officers were not doing it.

READ MORE: Slough Council has "long way to go" to restore finances

“There’s far too many agency and temporary staff at the top, and there’s still far too many, but at least we, the commissioners, are here. There’s a sense of direction now to actually carry work through.”

The commissioners have requested the government to expand their powers to recruit the top three tiers of the council without going through the normal procedure in order to get high-quality people in as quickly as possible.

Mr Caller said: “We need a significant number of high-quality people who are dedicated and determined to turn this place around.

“We have been struggling to recruit them. That’s why we asked the Secretary of State to give us additional powers so we can cut through all of this and get people in.

“In the long run, the council won’t be able to support that level of top-level people, so I expect people to be here for two to three years, and they are not the sort of people who want to stay.

“They are more heavy duty, turn around people. They will come in and do the job, but we haven’t got those people. We’ve got one of those people who only just started – Steven Brown, chief operating officer.

“He’s the first of them. It has taken a long time to get him here.”