Council's former HQ mistakenly listed for sale
GoogleA council’s former headquarters was mistakenly listed for sale online, it has said.
Slough Borough Council moved out of St Martins Place on Bath Road in 2019 and into its £41m Observatory House HQ.
A spokesperson said St Martins Place is on a list of assets that could be sold to meet massive debts – but is not up for sale yet.
An advert appeared online on Tuesday on a property search engine but has since been removed.
Previously the council said it hoped to turn the building into 64 affordable flats.
The authority hopes to raise about £600m from selling assets.
It had hoped that would have been achieved by March 2027 but a council report said that was “unrealistic” because some sales have been delayed.
The now-removed advert mentioned the site’s location close to Slough’s train station and town centre.
It said: “St Martins Place represents an excellent development or conversion opportunity to deliver a significant residential or alternative use scheme.”
A council spokesperson said: “St Martins Place isn’t for sale right now.
"We have a strong and active programme to bring surplus assets to the market but, on this occasion, the advert was not part of a marketing initiative and has been removed.
“We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.”
At a meeting earlier this month, deputy council leader Wal Chahal said it could not sell all of its assets at once because there would be a “fire sale”.
But he added: “We’ve got to sell a significant amount of our assets to pay off the debt profile that we have otherwise we will be sinking under the debt.”
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