Nottingham City Council's leader hopes the authority won't be left "dangling without any certainty" after confirming he doesn't yet know whether enough has been done to avoid more Government intervention. After issues including the collapse of Robin Hood Energy and the misspending of £40m, Nottingham City Council has been working to avoid the Government sending in commissioners to run the authority at a cost to taxpayers.
The council had until the end of November to provide a response to a list of 67 requirements that had been set out by Sir Tony Redmond. Sir Tony is the chairman of Nottingham City Council's Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), which was given more powers after the council avoided commissioners being sent in during the summer.
That decision was made on the condition that improvements continue to be made and a decision from the Government on whether the council has done enough is due by the end of January. David Mellen, Nottingham City Council’s leader, confirmed the last IAB meeting of the year took place last week.
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He said: "No indication was given at the meeting as to whether our answers were sufficient or our progress was sufficient. Unusually, Sir Tony is not going to be sharing his response to the Government with us and I think he has been told not to.
"He said [what we presented] was very long and very detailed but he didn't give any indication as to whether it did the job. A Government decision is due by the end of January and we know that they have not always been timely, but we would hope that on something as serious as this, we won't be left dangling without any certainty."
Sir Tony Redmond is due to deliver his findings to the Government next week. Local government secretary Michael Gove said in the summer that he was 'minded to' send in commissioners to Nottingham but this action was not taken by his successor Greg Clark, though Mr Gove is now back in position as the minister responsible.
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