{"id":205891,"date":"2025-06-22T19:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T19:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205891\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T19:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T19:58:12","slug":"we-live-in-the-uk-town-sadiq-khan-wants-to-include-in-the-peoples-republic-of-london-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205891\/","title":{"rendered":"We live in the UK town Sadiq Khan wants to include in the ‘People’s Republic of London’ | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The residents of a town in Berkshire have given their verdict on the prospect of becoming part of London. Proposals are being considered for Slough<\/a> to become part of Greater London due to the Government’s Devolution White Paper, which encourages the reorganisation of local governments into larger unitary authorities to grant more powers to local leaders instead of Westminster.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Slough Borough Council<\/a> said that it would consider merging with West London boroughs or being absorbed by the Greater London Authority. Speaking in February, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan<\/a> told MyLondon<\/strong><\/a>: “I’m always happy to speak to those who want to join the people’s republic of London. It’s really important for us to recognise Greater London has actually grown from London over a period of decades.”<\/p>\n

He added: “You look at this great city of ours then go back a thousand years and it was even smaller.<\/p>\n

“That’s the story of Greater London. Growth per se is not a problem in terms of population and geography is planning for that growth.<\/p>\n

“I’ve not spoken to the team at Slough, but I’m not surprised they want to join the party.”<\/p>\n

Slough Borough Council has endured years of financial chaos and declared bankruptcy in 2021 with a \u00a3760 million black hole in its finances.<\/p>\n

Amid the creation of new unitary authorities, Slough is considered too small to become one, making a merger likely.<\/p>\n

With Thames Valley to its west, it could combine with Reading, Windsor and Bracknell, but with London on its eastern border, a merger with the London Borough of Hillingdon is also possible, as is the prospect of the town becoming a London borough of its own.<\/p>\n

A letter to the local MP co-signed by 24 others in May said: \u201cFor many of us, Slough is already intrinsically connected to London\u2026 it is a city we feel part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Travers, expert in local government at the LSE told the Telegraph<\/a>: \u201cThere is nothing immutable about today\u2019s version of London. If London and Slough wanted this to happen, it could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The town was famously the setting for Ricky Gervais\u2019 The Office, where it was portrayed as drab and dreary, a view some still consider accurate.<\/p>\n

Anthony Goldstein, 59, told the Telegraph<\/a>: \u201cThe only good thing about Slough is when you see it in the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not looked after. The services have got worse. The centre is disgusting. I don\u2019t even walk down the high street anymore. I\u2019d move out tomorrow if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger Colegate, 86, added: \u201cAs you can see, it\u2019s all betting shops, charity shops, mobile phone shops,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s no worse than anywhere else. And they\u2019re not the only council to be bankrupt, are they?\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite its perception by some, the town has an abundance of transport links, lying close to the M25 and M40 and is considered to be the most productive place in Britain, according to the Centre for Cities.<\/p>\n

As one local put it: \u201cIt\u2019s one of those places where everyone says they\u2019re trying to get out but people find themselves not able to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The residents of a town in Berkshire have given their verdict on the prospect of becoming part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[687,748,393,4884,81886,3738,257,82885,14252,82888,82887,9180,16,82886,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-205891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-berkshire","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-local-councils","13":"tag-local-government","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-mayor-london","16":"tag-sadiq-khan","17":"tag-slough-council","18":"tag-thames-valley","19":"tag-towns","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-unitary-authority","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114728789803321210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}