Commissioners revealed to lead revival of bankrupt council
Former Labour politicians are set to advise commissioners at Birmingham City Council after it declared itself bankrupt.
Lord John Hutton, the former defence and business secretary under the previous Labour Government and John Biggs the former executive Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets will support the political leadership of the authority, led by Max Caller CBE.
Caller has previously intervened at Slough, Liverpool and Northamptonshire councils and said that Birmingham hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games was a “challenge too far” due to its historical financial issues.
He will lead a group of five commissioners appointed by the levelling up secretary Michael Gove, to oversee the running of the council for the next five years.
The commissioners will be paid fees of £1,100 a day as well as expenses, for up to 150 days a year.
Caller, the former CEO of the London Boroughs of Hackney and Barnet is joined by:
John Coughlan CBE – current commissioner for special educational needs and disability services and former Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council. He has been asked to focus on “broad improvement”, by supporting “cultural change and transformation”.
Chris Tambini – former director of corporate resources at Leicestershire County Council. He will be overseeing the financial position and recovery of the authority.
Pam Parkes – executive director for people and transformation at Essex County Council. Parkes will support the improvement of the council’s HR and organisational design capacity and find solutions to its Equal Pay issue.
Jackie Belton – Chief Executive of the London Borough of Bexley and former executive director of operations at the London Borough of Newham where she was responsible for housing, planning, regeneration and environment and will therefore focus on supporting the authority’s housing function.
Myron Hrycyk – the Cabinet Office’s Crown Representative for Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft who will be working to rectify the council’s Oracle issues, improve IT and provide commercial insight.
In response to the appointments, Leader of the Council Cllr John Cotton and Chief Executive Deborah Cadman said in a statement:
“Max Caller is a vastly experienced local government expert with a strong track record in transforming and improving councils and we welcome his appointment as the lead commissioner. We believe his knowledge of the City and his previous experience as a non-Executive advisor to the authority will be an invaluable asset.
“Our sole focus now is on working with the commissioners in a collaborative way to meet the immediate challenges and set the Council on the journey to long-term sustained improvement.
“That work is already underway and the expert input from the commissioners will be invaluable as we work to transform the council and get the budget back on track.”
