Councillors are working to bring a university presence to Slough.

The town’s quality of schools was highlighted at the UK Property Forums Slough round table event on November 3, as an attraction for people to move to there. Now the council wants a university to help keep them in Slough and to contribute to it.

Deputy leader of Slough Borough Council, Cllr Pavitar Mann, said: “We are actively looking to bring a university offer into the town. We invest in our kids, in high quality education and all the stuff that goes around that and then, often, they have to leave to go to university.

“But it may mean that they grow roots where they go to university, or if they come back it may mean they have to commute into London for jobs and so, although they are residents here and they have benefitted from the town, there’s not necessarily a contribution being made to the town.

“So certainly, the university offer is a key priority for us, one that we are actively acting on.”

Earlier, Helen Todd, managing director of Stubbings Property Marketing, which helped promote the Novus scheme of homes near the Moxy hotel, said leisure and school places had helped attract people to that development.

She said: “What has been really interesting over the last few years is that we are seeing a massive migration of residents coming out of London and into Slough – to live here.

“The whole SUR (Slough Urban Renewal) vision was all about live, work, play and I think where that partnership with the council worked brilliantly right at the beginning, was the opening of The Curve, Salt Hill, doing all the leisure, the football stadium, the ice rink – but, even more importantly, loads of school places.”

Quality of the town’s grammar schools was a particular focus.

Cllr Mann said: “Our grammar schools were always top performing but the overall improvement is that the non-selective schools are almost on a par with our grammar schools.

“It doesn’t matter what part of the town you live in, you have the opportunity to go to an outstanding school with excellent results so that is a real seller for us.”

See also:

‘Massive’ deal done for Slough Akzo Nobel site

‘Seismic’ shift in occupiers’ approach

The panel included: Jonny Denton, Darcliffe Homes; Ollie Seargent, DevComms; Helen Todd, Stubbings Property Marketing; Lucy Arthur, Ashby Capital; Cllr Pavitar Mann, Slough Borough Council & DevComms; James Goodwin, Cushman & Wakefield; Laura Elias, SEGRO, Matthew Battle, UK Property Forums; Lea Boyce Zuccotto, Ashby Capital, Mike Shearn, Haslams Estate Agents and Georgia Perry-Hilsdon, AIPUT.

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