Liverpool council commissioners could hand key powers back early

Commissioners overseeing Liverpool Council could hand back key powers to the city ahead of schedule.

As the Government-appointed team delivers its fourth assessment of progress at the Cunard Building since 2021, Mike Cunningham – who heads up the five strong officials – said while “positive” change has been made at Liverpool Council, his team are likely to have some degree of oversight once their originally agreed term has come to a close.

Mr Cunningham praised the work of the city’s new leader Cllr Liam Robinson and chief executive Andrew Lewis in driving change. The former senior police official said cautious optimism generated from a previous assessment in March had been “justified” and further improvements were now expected.

Subject to agreement from Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Mr Cunningham said such has been the progress in the council’s finance and highways departments, he expects to hands back control over those areas in March – three months ahead of schedule. However, concerns remain about performance around property and asset management.

Mr Cunningham said: “When we came in in June 2021, this was envisaged as a three-year piece of work, ending in June next year and we have been very happy with the progress in Highways and Transport and in Finance, to the point where we have recommended to the Secretary of State that the powers that were handed to commissioners in those areas are handed back to the council ahead of that June date. If the Secretary of State agrees with that they will be handed back in March.

“Liverpool City Council is a big, multi-faceted organisation where parts of it improve at a different rate to others, I would have expected that from the outset and that has come to pass. There are some parts of the council that haven’t improved at the same rate, notably property and asset management. This was one of the reasons the initiative was initiated.”

Mr Cunningham said his team had written to Liverpool Council setting out its expectations in an area he described as “a long way away from where it needs to be.” He added: “It has not made the improvements that we would have expected. It needs to improve at a pace.”

It had been envisaged that the commissioners would leave after their three year term expires next June when they were first put in post back in 2021. Mr Cunningham confirmed he expected some form of continued support in the city beyond that date.

He said: “We envisage that Liverpool City Council will require further support beyond June next year in some areas. I can’t be specific about that yet, simply because those decisions have not yet been made.

“To be very clear, commissioners will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State on this in March next year as to what the continued presence might be. It will be his decision, but we are very open and talking to the council leader and chief executive about this because we want to be sure that recommendation is well informed.

“What I can say is that it won’t be a continued intervention in the way that the intervention has been up to now. There will be less commissioner presence, less commissioner time, less cost to the Liverpool taxpayers.

“I imagine there will be fewer people and that this will be for a matter of months rather than years.”

Despite this, Mr Cunningham said overall the report to Mr Gove was a positive one, praising the “energy and dynamism” brought by Cllr Robinson, Mr Lewis and broadly new senior management team. He added: “In our last report we used the phrase cautious optimism and that phrase was justified because we have seen those improvements continue and that gives us confidence to expect them to continue further.”

Reacting to Mr Cunningham’s findings, Cllr Robinson said the council was “pleased but not complacent” about the work done since the last report in March. He said: “The fact they particularly acknowledge the pace at which the new cabinet and the new senior team of officers are working hand in glove, in a really focused way, that’s really positive.

“I honestly believe we’ve done 12 months’ work in the past six months, but we’re not complacent in the slightest. On assuming this role, I pledged to the people of Liverpool that we would complete the council’s improvement journey and fix the council and we know there’s still a lot we’ve got to do.

“It’s very pleasing we’re going to get certain powers back before the end of the intervention but equally we acknowledge particularly the property function within the council is not in the place it needs to be at the moment and that’s why we are going to be working on very specific measures of how we can manage all of those sites the council owns right across the city in a more detailed fashion than has historically been the case. We’re pleased, but not complacent and that same laser focus will continue for the next six months and beyond, because we want the statutory intervention to end on time and that is very much my focus.”