Nottingham City Council leadership ‘confident’ commissioners will leave in 2026

The council’s leadership said while the authority remains in 'crisis mode', it is where it needs to be in its plan

Nottingham City Council’s leadership is “confident” it is on track to deliver the required improvements to be free of Government-backed intervention in 2026. The Labour-run authority declared itself effectively bankrupt in November, and it is now being overseen by a team of three commissioners led by Tony McArdle.

The commissioners took over from the Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), after it was concluded the council had not been making the required changes at the expected pace. As part of the intervention, the Government directed the council to develop and agree an Improvement Plan which satisfied the commissioners.

During a Corporate Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday (October 9), the council’s leadership said while the authority remains in “crisis mode”, it is where it needs to be in its plan. Committee members said they “touched wood” during the meeting when the 2026 departure of commissioners was suggested.

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Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Ethan Radford (Lab), the Deputy Leader, said: “I don’t think the IAB was successful and I think that can be demonstrated by the fact that it was followed by the appointment of commissioners. If the IAB had been successful we would have been moving away from Government intervention. I don’t think that was a failing of the council, I think it was frankly a failing of the IAB.

“These people were appointed for three years to guide us into a better position, and we were not. There is a key change in the mood and temperature between the IAB and commissioners, in the sense that the IAB took a very punitive and punishing approach as opposed to the commissioners taking a more supportive and understanding approach.

“The Improvement Plan needs to be viewed as the roadmap for the council achieving a position of being financially sustainable, which is where we need to be if we want to see commissioners gone. If we do everything we need to do in that Improvement Plan then we will achieve that and I think the leadership is confident we will be able to do that.

“You cannot guarantee the outcome because a lot could happen in that time but we are where we currently need to be and if we carry on along this path we will get to where we need to be in 18 months’ time.” Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab), the leader of the council, said the authority “must look, feel and operate significantly differently to the council of today” so that it becomes financially sustainable.

The plan sets out how the council can implement the required improvements by March 2026, when the commissioners are expected to depart. Progress will be reviewed every two months by a ‘Transformation, Change and Oversight board’, on which sits Cllr Radford and the new Chief Executive, Sajeeda Rose.

Under the plan, the council will look at how it can better retain permanent staff to save on costs related to temporary workers and consultants, and a “fundamental redesign” of services. Cllr Radford said it would be better for the council to run 50 services well, rather than 100 services poorly.

But he emphasised this could be achieved through community partnerships and trusts, not just through outsourcing. Responding to criticism of the IAB earlier this year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the IAB had worked “constructively” with the council to address the many challenges it faces.