The government commissioners installed at troubled Liverpool City Council are now "optimistic" about the progress being made at the local authority, but insist there is a lot of work to do.
A team of five Whitehall commissioners is currently overseeing the work of the council after last year's damning government inspection, which lifted the lid on a huge range of issues at the Cunard Building including poor decisions, wasted money and a toxic culture in some departments.
That team now includes a specific finance commissioner, Stephen Hughes, who was appointed last month as the government expanded the intervention at the council, giving the wider team powers over finances, governance and recruitment. One of the main reasons that expanded intervention was called for was because the commissioners did not feel enough progress was being made at at the right pace.
But while there is still a long way to go, the commissioners have now said they are optimistic about the progress and changes being made.
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Speaking to the ECHO, lead commissioner Mike Cunningham said: "What we have previously been concerned about and reported on is that there is a big job to do here in Liverpool and in the early stages of the intervention we were not convinced that the scale and urgency had properly landed. We are much more confident about that now.
"We have seen through the budget-setting that there is a real recognition that difficult decisions need to be made, they need to be made sensibly in a prioritised way but at pace. There is not a lot of time here to put things in place."
That budget process is underway and will be a very difficult one for the council as it looks to find a further £73m in cuts with jobs and services at risk.
"We are more optimistic and more confident than we have been, but there is still a long way to go, a lot to do and there are still risks ahead."
The intervention at Liverpool Council got underway in June 2021, with the commissioners initially installed for a three-year period. Mr Cunningham said his team remain hopeful of finishing their work within that timescale and said the addition of Mr Hughes in the finance role will help with this.
He added: "We are here for a three-year intervention, we've not asked for more time, we've asked for more powers but not time - we are still hopeful that those improvements will be made in that allotted time. We are not after a world beating organisation by the time this intervention ends, we are after a strong, resilient, viable council that can stand on its own two feet and make good decisions for the people of Liverpool. Good enough will be good enough."
"It is in our interests as public servants to get Liverpool Council out of intervention and working well for the people of Liverpool."
The council has seen a lot of upheaval in recent times, with former chief executive Tony Reeves resigning in the summer after reported tensions with the commissioner team. Weeks before that the council's finance chief Mel Creighton quit in the aftermath of an energy contract debacle that could see the local authority forced to pay as much as £16m more for its electricity.
But new faces have arrived, including interim chief executive Theresa Grant and Mr Cunningham said everyone is now pulling in the same direction. He added: "What we have is a clear-eyed determination to make improvements and a recognition politically and at officer level of the amount there is to do." He admitted the intervention had not got off to a great start last year and said some within the council were slow to understand the scale of the challenge ahead.
"When you are making improvements at an organisation, if you are starting from a point where there is a different perspective of how much there is to do, then that becomes a problem. But I think there is a shared understanding that there is a lot to do and there is a plan in place that everyone understands."
When the intervention was expanded last month, there was obvious alarm that the additional powers of the commissioner team included the power to veto and step in over budget decisions. Mr Cunningham said such powers have not been used and his team do not intend to use them.
He added: "We do have extensive powers available to us, but we have not used them. What we have sought to do from day one is to work collaboratively with officers and politicians to help and support them to make really good decisions. If we feel at any point that there is a requirement to step in and use those powers then we would do so, but that would be in extremis."
The arrival of a specific finance commissioner in Stephen Hughes last month caused concerns around the city about how much direct power the government team would have over the running of Liverpool. But Mr Hughes, like Mr Cunningham, insisted he is here to help the council make improvements.
The former Birmingham chief executive leader said the work going on at the council "gives us confidence that they are committed to making changes work but the proof is in the eating in this instance.”
Mr Hughes added: “What I’ve seen is, there is the makings of a very good budget process, they’ve been through a political filter, they’re into a public consultation exercise, there’s some work being done to work out how that’s all going to be implemented, that’s all very positive. What we need to see is what comes out of the consultation, what decisions are made and what actions are implemented and that’s the key challenge.”
“We’ve got good plans, we’ve understood what the issues are, we know broadly how to fix them. What we now need to do is turn those plans into operational processes and deliver the change and we as commissioners will be looking to see that happen in order to be confident the intervention has been successful.
"There’s a lot to implement in the budget that needs to be seen, you have to look at what’s happening through the year, how well the finances are being managed, but also there’s an awful lot of changes that need to be made in the financial systems, the underlying way in which the organisation manages its finances and that’s a programme which will take several months to probably put in place."
He agreed with Mr Cunningham that those at the council are now fully aware of what needs to happen. He added: “Everyone I’ve talked to so far understands it, I think the top management I’ve engaged with clearly understand the scale of the change. I think there is an issue about the culture of the organisation as a whole, the extent to which there’s ownership at every level of those issues and part of the improvement programme is around that.”
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