The government has announced today that it has decided not to appoint commissioners but instead strengthen the power of the pre-existing improvement and Assurance board.
The government feels that due to the work and progress the council has made commissioners are not required, and we are relived that government have come to this conclusion. Nottingham City Council and ourselves as elected representatives felt that the current support arrangements had been working well, and we will continue the work of the Improvement and Assurance Board without the need for intervention by commissioners.
In practice the Government’s decision will mean that recommendations from the Improvement and Assurance Board in relation to the council’s ‘Together for Nottingham’ improvement plan will now have the weight of Statutory Direction. The Chair of the Improvement and Assurance Board, Sir Tony Redmond, will be required to provide a formal review of progress in 3 months’ time which will be considered by the Secretary of State.
Working with the Improvement and Assurance Board the council under Labour political leadership have made significant progress on improvements, agreeing a balanced medium-term financial plan, reducing debt levels, reviewing companies and transferring NCH back in to the council.
We have done these things and stayed true to Labour principles and values, we have maintained our welfare rights service, made improvements to property insulation, and been world leading in progressing green initiatives such as the charging rank for electric cabs outside of Loxley House.
Secretary of State Greg Clarke acknowledged that he had received a number of letters of support for the council from local partners, and Nottingham Labour would like to thank these partners for their support.
It is through collaboration that any political party is able to make the changes that improve the life’s of their constituents, without our partners we would be much less effective at delivering for Nottingham’s residents.
Nottingham Labour is not complacent, there is much work to do done, to but we have demonstrated our ability and determination to address the issues which led to the non-statutory review and we are confident we will continue to work well with the Board to make the progress needed to emerge a better council. Nottingham Labour have proved ourselves to be competent when it comes to managing the cities interests, and we will continue to work with the improvement board for the reminder of this term and the next term.