Liverpool City Council – which is currently under government intervention – has appointed Ian Williams as corporate director for finance and resources.
Williams has spent the last 14 years as group director for finance and corporate services at the London Borough of Hackney, where he is also the borough’s statutory chief finance officer.
He will take up his new permanent role in early summer.
Liverpool City Council’s senior management team has been restructured in the wake of government intervention, with five commissioners appointed to Liverpool to oversee the authority’s financial management, highways, property and regeneration functions.
A written statement earlier this year on the robustness of Liverpool’s 2023/24 budget estimates and adequacy of reserves suggested that the council has almost £230m of “bad or doubtful debts” that may need to be written off.
Liverpool City Council said that Williams was “no stranger” to the financial challenges it has faced in recent years, noting that he had overseen a reduction of over £150m – equating to almost half of the borough’s funding – during his time at Hackney.
“Aside from balancing the books, Ian’s achievements at Hackney include contributing to the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, leading the £500m development of the borough’s Britannia Site to include leisure and education provision alongside 480 residential properties and spearheading the council’s financial response to the cost of living crisis,” Liverpool City Council said in a statement.
Williams also served as acting chief executive at Hackney for two separate periods in 2021 and 2023.
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Of his new role, Williams said: “I am delighted to join Liverpool City Council at such a pivotal point in its journey of improvement. I’m proud and humbled to take on responsibility for leading the council’s finance and resources team, ensuring that the services delivered truly represent value for money, are sustainable and are resident-focused.
“Liverpool is a fantastic global city as we see again this week in its welcome for Eurovision. Its people deserve the very best from their council and I am excited to work with everyone to deliver that.”
Williams started his career as a CIPFA trainee accountant at Staffordshire County Council holding a range of positions, after which he joined the London Borough of Camden before joining Hackney in March 2007.
The permanent addition of Williams adds some stability to Liverpool City Council, which has seen a flurry of interim appointments in its finance department in recent times.
Last month (April), Sara Pitt was appointed as interim director of finance at the council. She was previously director of finance for Birmingham City Council between February 2020 and March 2023. She also worked at Staffordshire County Council for over 14 years as a principal accountant and strategic finance business partner.
Barry Scarr currently holds the post of interim corporate director of finance; he succeeded Ian Duncan in March 2023.
Prior to that, Chris Buss was appointed as acting director of finance in June 2022 until his subsequent resignation in August 2022.
Buss succeeded Mel Creighton, who resigned as director of finance and deputy chief executive in May 2022 after more than three years at the council.
In November 2022, levelling up secretary Michael Gove expanded the government’s intervention in Liverpool City Council by appointing Stephen Hughes, former chief executive at Birmingham City Council, as finance commissioner at Liverpool following concerns over the authority’s “stark situation”.
A report from auditors Grant Thornton published in July 2022 highlighted “significant weaknesses” in Liverpool City Council’s financial arrangements and said the authority could face an £86.7m funding gap in 2024/25.
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