Gap at the top

The subject of whether or not local authorities need chief executives comes up in phases like bouts of flu. And curiously, any proposals to scrap the post of chief executive are invariably made by politicians. Now, Lord Heseltine has weighed in, wearing his new hat as Conservative leader ~David Cameron~'s new best friend and Mr City Fixit in charge of the party's new city task force. Lord Heseltine has again posed the question as to whether city councils need chief executives and concluded they do not, and that the posts should instead be merged into the office of directly-elected mayor. He will certainly remember back in the 1980s when he was a Cabinet minister that the subject was hotly debated then. Indeed, for many years, Kingston-upon Thames RLBC had no chief executive and was led by a Conservative, Angela Rumbold, who later became an MP and minister. The council subsequently dropped the idea and has had one ever since. Some councils have experimented with ‘head of the paid service', again, usually for temporary periods. There were also fears that once the new cabinet structures were brought in, the power of chief executives would be curtailed. Again, this too proved to be pessimistic. If anything, the inspection process has shown how important it is to have someone running the ocean liners that most big city councils are, ideally in close partnership with a strong political leader. CPA failures have led to an exodus of chief executives who invariably have taken the rap for failure. The one mantra that ministers and inspectors repeat is that the best councils are those run by a close top team of chief executive and leader.