Croydon LBC has ‘effective and visible' political and managerial leadership, Local Government Association peers have found.

A corporate peer challenge report said chief executive Katherine Kerswell and executive mayor Jason Perry were ‘well-respected' and provided ‘strong, visible leadership' to the council.

Kerswell, who joined as an interim in September 2020 before being appointed permanently in July 2021, was described to the peer team as ‘honest, engaging and caring'.

Peers said the relationships between Kerswell and Mayor Perry, and between cabinet and Croydon's corporate management team (CMT), were ‘positive and effective, underpinned by mutual respect for their respective roles and trust'.

The report read: ‘Members of the CMT operate well together as a cohesive and supportive body, and are highly thought of internally and by external partners.

‘Member-officer and member-member relationships across the council are generally mature and respectful.'

Peers said the council had an ‘ambitious vision for the borough, with clear corporate priorities' – two years after Croydon issued its third section 114 notice.

They continued: ‘The council has clearly made significant progress is responding to the issues flagged and there is now stable leadership across the organisation. 

‘The peer team was impressed with the scale of change the council has achieved over the last four years, but noted that, despite these improvements, generally residents and local people are not yet seeing a lot of tangible evidence of improvement and delivery externally.'

The report said the council's organisational culture now recognised the importance of good governance after a report in the public interest had found ‘weak underlying arrangements'.

However, it highlighted that ‘some staff still feel reticent to challenge managers and share concerns' and there was ‘more work for the council to do to ensure that it is responsive and able to deliver service improvement and rebuild trust with residents'.

Mayor Perry said: ‘There is much more still to do. After everything that has happened at Croydon in the past, there is understandably some way to go to rebuild trust with residents.'