The leader of Nottingham City Council has responded to Nottinghamshire Live's call for change after further revelations of serious financial mismanagement were revealed. The city had first been alerted to significant failings at the Labour-run authority after the collapse of Robin Hood Energy in 2020, with millions in taxpayer cash thrown at the project. However, recent investigations have uncovered much more.
Yet despite the council's failings being brought to light in recent days David Mellen, leader of Nottingham City Council, has said that he has instructed a number of reviews and investigations to take place to "put right historical financial issues."
In an emailed response to a story written by NottinghamshireLive, Mr Mellen wrote: "I’m proud to be the Leader of Nottingham City Council and to represent the interests of people right across our great city. It is a privilege every day to work in public service on behalf of all Nottingham people.
"I try to undertake my public duties with integrity, openness and honesty. I always have done and I always will. Since I became Leader in 2019 I have been determined to improve the culture at the City Council and to make sure that it is transparent to the public. I’ve been focussed on ensuring that the organisation on a stable financial footing so that it can continue to deliver good services to Nottingham people when they need them.
"I instructed a number of reviews and investigations to take place, to bring about improvements and to put right historical financial issues. As those reviews have reported back to me, along with my fellow Labour councillor colleagues, I have taken necessary, decisive action and made sure that the findings of those reviews are publicly available.
"I do not shy away from dealing with these challenges head on. It has been my mission to bring about much-needed change to the organisation, strengthening the Council with a new senior leadership team, setting a balanced 4-year budget and reducing the Council’s debt levels by almost £250million.
"I commissioned a review of Robin Hood Energy as one of my first acts as Leader of the Council in 2019, which resulted in a decision of the Labour-led council to sell the customer book to Centrica and to end the Council’s investments in the company.
"More recently, we’ve taken action to ensure that money generated from Council house rents is properly segregated from other Council funds and only used for the benefit of Council tenants. We have put a stop to historical practices, which resulted in some of these funds being allocated to non-council housing spending.
"This historical discrepancy will be made good in financial terms. We have acted to begin the process of bringing Nottingham City Homes under the direct control of the City Council, which will take a period of time to complete. Our tenants and leaseholders deserve nothing less.
"Rooting out bad practice and bringing out into the public domain historical issues doesn’t always lead to positive news headlines, but I have been determined to do what is needed and what is right. Despite our challenges the ambition of Nottingham Labour for our great city remains undimmed.
"Plans have been approved to deliver over £600 million worth of capital projects, including over £200 million on building hundreds of new council houses that Nottingham people desperately need and improving existing properties. Finally, I will not take lectures from a Prime Minister who is much more concerned with newspaper headlines than he is about standards in public life or doing the right thing.
"It is absolutely clear to me that he has overseen an administration that has lost an estimated £15billion to Covid loan fraud and errors, given away billions of pounds to cronies and ‘Ministers’ mates’ for faulty PPE that couldn’t be used, and wasted £37billion on a Test and Trace system that didn’t work.
"Transparency, honesty and openness are fundamentals of leadership and I will continue to put these values into practice."
