Birmingham City Council has appointed a new finance leadership team, with London Borough of Camden’s chief finance officer Mike O’Donnell taking over section 151 responsibilities on a part time basis.
O’Donnell will spend three days a week at Birmingham attempting to implement the budget agreed by councillors in February.
As acting chief finance officer, he will take the reins until the vacant post is filled.
He will be joined at the authority by Alan Gay, who is retiring from his current role as director of strategy and resources at Leeds City Council.
A source close to the process told Room151 that Gay would be providing a “critical friend” role on a part time basis.
Leader of the council Cllr John Clancy said: “Mike and Alan have a wealth of local government experience between them and these appointments, added to those announced yesterday, will further strengthen our top team.”
The pair will have their work cut out in making the £71m in cuts outlined in the authority’s 2017/18 budget, agreed last month.
In a letter to communities secretary Sajid Javid, Birmingham Improvement Panel chairman John Crabtree voiced worries over the delivery of next year’s budget and subsequent planned savings.
His letter said: “New financial plans are now in place and these are more robust and credible.
“The plans and strategies, however, will not be easy to implement. Some implementation timetables are still extremely ambitious and the risks to achieving fully effective delivery are high.”
Last year, Gay sat on team which conducted an independent review of the council’s finance plans.
The review, which reported to the improvement panel, concluded that “a number of savings plans budgeted for in 2016/17 were very ambitious and in hindsight were unlikely to be achieved”.
Birmingham this week also named Stella Manzie as its interim chief executive after Mark Rogers was removed from the role in February.
Neither O’Donnell nor Gay were available for comment on their appointments.
