Commissioners announced for Birmingham City Council

Leading local government figure Max Caller CBE has been confirmed as the Lead Commissioner for Birmingham City Council today, as vital work to address budgetary and organisational challenges at the local authority continues.

The former Chief Executive at London boroughs Hackney and Barnet will be joined by:

• John Coughlan CBE – current Commissioner for Special Educational Needs and Disability services and former Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council
• Chris Tambini – former director of corporate resources at Leicestershire County Council.
• Pam Parkes – Executive Director for People and Transformation at Essex County Council.
• Jackie Belton – Chief Executive of the London Borough of Bexley.
•  Myron Hrycyk – the Cabinet Office’s Crown Representative for Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft.

In addition to the Commissioner team, the Secretary of State has appointed two political advisors to support the political leadership of the Authority as they take the difficult decisions that will be required:

• Lord John Hutton – former Defence Secretary and Business Secretary under the previous Labour Government.
• John Biggs – former Executive Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

In response to the appointments, Leader of the Council Cllr John Cotton and Chief Executive Deborah Cadman vowed to work constructively and collaboratively with the commissioners to tackle Birmingham’s current challenges.

They said: “Max Caller is a vastly experienced local government expert with a strong track record in transforming and improving councils and we welcome his appointment as the lead commissioner. We believe his knowledge of the City and his previous experience as a non-Executive advisor to the authority will be an invaluable asset.

“Our sole focus now is on working with the commissioners in a collaborative way to meet the immediate challenges and set the Council on the journey to long-term sustained improvement.

“That work is already underway and the expert input from the commissioners will be invaluable as we work to transform the council and get the budget back on track.”

Following the issuance of its section 114 notice on 5 September, Secretary of State for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities announced on 19 September that he was minded to intervene and send commissioners to Birmingham City Council.

The leader and chief executive responded to the Secretary of State’s ‘minded to’ letter acknowledging Government analysis of the current challenges, welcoming the proposed intervention, and vowing to work collaboratively with the commissioners.