Max Caller is set to lead a government intervention at Birmingham City Council.
The experienced local government professional and former commissioner will lead a team of government-appointed commissioners who would provide advice and challenge the council while making decisions directly if required.
They would also be handed powers relating to governance, scrutiny of strategic decision making, finance and senior appointments under a package of government proposals to tackle the financial and governance problems at the authority.
Caller was the chief executive of the London boroughs of Hackney and Barnet, and a chair of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. He has experience in multiple interventions, including having previously been lead commissioner at Slough, lead inspector for the Liverpool and Northamptonshire Best Value Inspections, and a commissioner at Tower Hamlets.
He also has experience of working with Birmingham City Council, having been appointed by the council as one of their non-executive advisors following the non-statutory intervention.
In announcing the proposed government intervention, levelling up secretary Michael Gove described the authority’s record as “ineffective, inefficient and unaccountable government” and said Birmingham was “failing in its basic duties”. He added: “Where local leaders fail, it is residents who are let down. This cannot go on.”
Earlier this month, the council issued a section 114 notice as a result of insurmountable financial pressures. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the authority was facing “backdated equal pay liability, currently estimated by the council as being up to £760m, along with an in-year budget deficit that includes the costs of implementing an IT system [which] was too significant for the council to manage”.
Along with appointing commissioners, the government’s proposals include establishing a local inquiry to investigate the root of the issues faced by the local authority.
The government intervention is subject to a representation period of five working days, until 26 September, to ensure the views of stakeholders are taken into consideration before a final decision on whether to intervene is taken.
“I can announce that I am writing to the council to set out my proposal to intervene and appoint commissioners, and that I intend to launch a local inquiry,” said Gove.
“I do not take these decisions lightly, but we must protect the interests of residents and taxpayers of Birmingham and provide assurance to the sector.”
If the intervention goes ahead, directions would be issued to Birmingham City Council requiring them to undertake specific actions including the preparation and implementation of an improvement plan within six months, to return it to a sustainable financial footing.
DLUHC said the local inquiry could look at the fundamental questions about how the issues facing Birmingham have developed and would examine the council’s ongoing management of issues identified in Lord Bob Kerslake’s review of the authority in 2014, and the non-statutory intervention afterwards.
The independent review, commissioned after the ‘Trojan Horse’ investigation into a number of Birmingham schools, found successive administrations had failed to tackle deep-rooted problems – and highlighted a culture of sweeping problems under the carpet, rather than tackling them head-on, DLUHC stated.
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