Commissioner warns troubled council rapid action needed

Mike Cunningham said he did not blame councillors in Liverpool for wanting his team to leave

The lead commissioner at Liverpool City Council has said the local authority still has a "long distance to travel" before his team can leave.

Mike Cunningham said the council signing off an energy contract which turned out to be void was a case study of wider issues, including workloads.

He told councillors: "You want us out and I don't blame you".

But he said he wanted to leave a "viable and sustainable" council and there was a lot to address.

Government-appointed commissioners were brought in to run parts of the council in March 2021 after inspectors found a "serious breakdown of governance" and "multiple apparent failures".

Mr Cunningham said his team was "desperate" to write a positive report and hoped to present one in December, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'Rapid action'

Accountants Mazars examined what led to the council's cabinet signing off on an extension to its electricity contract with Scottish Power at a meeting on 4 March, despite the firm having already withdrawn from the commercial market.

Its report identified gaps in the council's own audit process, criticised individual decision making and accused the authority of failing to learn lessons from previous contract renewals.

Members of the Audit Committee had their first opportunity to publicly discuss the findings at Liverpool Town Hall on Wednesday.

Mr Cunningham told councillors: "This is a case study in the challenge currently facing the council, in terms of workloads, identifying risk, decision-making.

"These things aren't new but the question is how quickly can they be addressed and they need to be addressed differently. You want us out and I don't blame you.

"We should be leaving Liverpool as a viable and sustainable council but there is still a long distance to travel." 

Mr Cunningham added he was "heartened" by the conversations taking place and there was a "common will" to progress but it needed to be changed into rapid action.

Labour group chief whip, Councillor Ruth Bennett, said the Mazars report did not identify anything members did not already know and questioned its value for money.

Former acting Mayor Councillor Wendy Simon criticised the report for not providing timescales or how to rectify issues around controls needed by the chief executive.

Jacqui McKinley, chief operating officer, stressed that improving the culture was a "top priority" for the authority but stressed it would take time.

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