Local government minister Lee Rowley has announced the next phase of intervention at Thurrock Council by appointing a lead and finance commissioner.
In September 2022, the government announced measures to intervene in Thurrock Council due to the authority’s debt position of over £1bn. It appointed Essex County Council as commissioner and best value inspector, giving the authority full control of the financial, governance and scrutiny functions of Thurrock.
Following the publication of the commissioners’ second report into Thurrock, Rowley has today (5 October) announced the next phase of the authority’s intervention by appointing Gavin Jones, chief executive at Essex County Council, and Nicole Wood, section 151 officer at Essex County Council, as lead commissioner and finance commissioner respectively.
Consequently, Essex County Council will exit its role as commissioner, given the first phase of Thurrock’s intervention has concluded with the publication of their second report.
“We will now move to a model of three standalone commissioners and allow Essex County Council the opportunity to exit from their formal support as a corporate body,” Rowley said in a written response to the report.
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‘Hard decisions yet to come’
The commissioners’ report outlined that the authority has made some progress in areas such as financial leadership, but highlighted that “many of the difficult and testing issues and hard decisions are yet to come”.
In regard to its financial sustainability, the report highlighted that Thurrock still needs to develop a “realistic” pathway to long-term sustainability. The commissioners stated several actions that the council can take to improve its outlook and “radically reduce” its debt are laid out in the Improvement and Recovery Plan.
“Some of these are on course, however, many deadlines have also slipped. This is due to a combination of a lack of corporate focus and paucity of capacity in the finance team,” the report said.
However, the commissioners outlined that improvement in the governance of the council is “less mature than that focused on financial issues”.
Their report stated that the quality of the council’s reports to support effective decision-making remains “inconsistent and at times inadequate”, with draft papers frequently failing to set out clear options, nor demonstrating that Thurrock is complying with its best value duty.
In addition, the commissioners highlighted that Thurrock is “thinking” about changing the “poor organisational culture” at the council. But, they stated that the initiative is “still very embryonic and lacks a compelling narrative about what has to change, why and how it will be addressed”.
‘Pace of change needs to accelerate’
In his response to the report, Rowley said: “It is now vital that the council focuses on what it needs to do and, as you [the commissioners] indicate, the pace of change needs to accelerate.
“Further slippage on key issues, such as the review of the capital programme and the implementation of a robust delivery risk assessment for savings, cannot happen.
“It is also critical that the council takes all necessary steps to improve its financial position and builds on the early work undertaken to improve governance.”
Alongside appointing new commissioners at Thurrock, Rowley also decided to move the authority to whole council elections, “to bring stability to the council, and to encourage greater consistency and longevity in decision making”.
The commissioners’ third report into the intervention at Thurrock Council is expected in December 2023.
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